Shhhh!

Shhhhh! She came home - and, she needs her rest.

She's doing well for the most part but she continues to suffer from iatrogenic postal dementia - a result of the geeks stripping her memory and forgetting to back up the e-mail files. All of my e-mails are gone - I had 10's of thousands - all neatly organized in their respective folders, years of archives. And, yes - I often returned to re-read old e-mails. Admittedly, the overwhelming majority of my e-mails are of no concern; some, I'm frankly relieved to be rid of. Gone too are all of my e-mail addresses - it will take some time to recreate my address book - sad.

Important thing is she is home and resting well. Tonight I'll finish installing important programs, connecting her to the printers, and juice her up with a brand new battery - after all she's been through, she needs a new battery. Tomorrow - all about quilting, sewing and cooking - and I've been doing a lot of all of the above.

On Life Support

It's been 2 weeks - my poor little lap top is still in the ICU on life support. Many have been suggesting I pull the plug, but I'm not ready to give up - I love the little guy. Things were looking up for awhile - the geeks removed 118 infected files and we thought we'd turned a corner. But the problem ran deeper - they had to ditch the memory - inducing a chemical computer coma - allowing the geeks to re-establish a new baseline. It's still blue screening but they are giving me hope and I'm standing by the little guy - I'm hopeful to get good news today or tomorrow. Please hang in there a few more days.

A positive note: all of my free time off of the laptop has given me lots of creative time. I've got tons to share with you when I'm back up and blogging.

Slow Geeks

Hey all - still waiting for the geeks to finish up fixing my laptop - ugggghhh! I'm hoping to have myself blogging as usual by tomorrow - computers - a love / hate relationship.

I've Been Attacked

Hi All - Quick Update - My computer crashed! Arggghhhh! I hope to be back on track by the weekend - stay tuned.

Quick Pic From the Market

My new friend from the Phoenixville Farmer's Market - what a cutie, him, not me!

Labor of Love - A Quilter's Garden

A few weeks ago I received an invitation to visit the garden of a quilting friend of mine - an open house for a garden, and not just any garden. Welcome to the garden - no, this is not the famed Longwood Gardens.

We're at the water's edge of Myrna and Paul's garden - a labor of love for these two life long dedicated gardeners. They manage this entire garden themselves, just under an acre in size, spending 8 - 10 hours a day tending, weeding, watering and doing whatever else the garden requires to make it flourish.

Meet Myrna - in addition to her love of gardening she is an absolutely amazing quilter.

Here's her husband Paul, giving a tour of the garden.

And this little guy posed for a shot as well - just look at this beautiful dragonfly - what big turquoise eyes you have!

Here's a look at a lovely cherub perched by the oak leaf hydrangea.

What bird wouldn't love to have lunch at this feeder with a backdrop of the stars and stripes?

This section of the garden is Zen-like with it's plantings, statuary and fountain. Despite the 90 degree temperature on the thermometer it was relaxingly cool in the shade of the tree canopy.

Carrying on with my Year of the Bird - here is a lovely bird themed plaque.

Now that's what I call a door bell! This is the front door to their home which was built in the late 1800's. Myrna uses the bell when Paul gets lost in the garden.
Myrna made two beautiful quilted table runners for the refreshment table. My only suggestion to her for next year was to bring out some of her beautiful quilts to adorn the gardens - she is an exquisite quilter and her creations would look stunning draped throughout the garden. It was a lovely visit Myrna - thanks so much for the hospitality!

DUGSO

Brooklyn has DUMBO - Down Under the Manhattan Brooklyn Overpass; Phoenixville has DUGSO - Down Under the Gay Street Overpass - the location of the Phoenixville Farmer's Market.

Despite the heat - I had another great day selling the Calico Cutters Baby Quilts - sold another 9 quilts today - here's the tent. All of the proceeds from the sale of these baby quilts is being donated to the Maternal Child Health Consortium of Chester County. And, yes, it was a hot one - 95 degrees - and I was in the sun for the better part of the day - thank heavens for the shade of the tent and the breeze.

At one point today a young couple walked up to the tent - they told me that one of their close friends was going through a difficult period and if it were not for the support and assistance of the Maternal Child Health Consortium they don't know what would have happened. It made standing out in the heat completely worth it - gave me goosebumps, and cooled me off at the same time.

I am now officially "the quilt lady" - says so right here:
And that's my sweet potato pie that "the sweet potato pie lady" sold me at the market. I went to school in the south and let me tell you this sweet potato pie was as good or better than any sweet potato pie I ever ate south of the Mason Dixon Line - absolutely scrumptious!

In addition to all of the great local foods available at the market today they also had zucchini bowling - you read right - zucchini bowling - the kids just loved it!