Hearthwood Lamps and Rustic Decor, Quilting, etc.: Mid-May Post

Hello Everyone,

It is already Mid-May, I can't believe how time flies!

I did have some finishes this month, but not one in quilting.

The beginning of May proved to be anything but what I expected. Our temperatures were only in the 30's and 40's to begin the month. We actually had a frost several mornings and I worried about my azaleas and lilacs and covered the azaleas every night. I'm happy to report that they are all well. My azaleas are about to bloom, and the lilacs had more on them this year than ever before. They are still pretty today.

On May 8th, the Governor allowed our county to move into the yellow phase of Covid-19 opening up. It didn't mean a whole lot, still no salons, barbers, dine in, so for us it meant just doing what we've been doing since March 16, staying in most of the time and only going out for necessities. Fine by me! I don't like going out and am definitely a homebody!

We actually had snow on May 9th! I knew we had it in April a lot of times, but May!! Our high that day was 31 degrees. We didn't get a lot of snow, just a dusting, but still had to ask myself, is this normal in May? Seriously, what is normal this year ............... nothing!!!

With the snow and it being colder than all get out, I decided to complete the free Capella University course in Business that I was taking thanks to being an Avon Representative. I can take free courses up until the end of July and thought I'd try this one. I took my final and passed the course with a 92%. Not too bad for never having gone to college or taken a college course. I did get 3 credits for this course, not that they will ever amount to a degree or anything.

Sunday, May 10th was Mother's Day! I had a wonderful, yummy surprise this year from Bryan and Jess! Cookies from Oakmont Bakery!! OMG!! They were so delicious. There were chocolate chips, sugar cookies, snickerdoodles, iced cookies shaped like a heart, M&M cookies, royal velvet cookies, peanut butter blossoms, and chocolate thumbprints!! I also got a beautiful card and Amazon Gift Card. I love Amazon!! I need to ramp up my walking to take care of all those calories!!

Living here by Pymatuning Lake we have a lot of Canadian geese around. Usually they are flying overhead in a "V" formation heading for the lake. This is the time of year that they have their babies so they are generally close by the lake. This one morning we were awakened to a very loud honking noise and then we heard loud flapping of wings and a crash. Seems that one of the geese landed on our garage roof and was honking uncontrollably. I guess the others had continued to fly and left this poor one to fend for herself on our roof. We don't know why she had to land. So, she honked and honked and then moved over to the peak of our house. She continued this for a few minutes and the next thing I knew, I heard another goose come and off they went! I guess she just needed a break from flying. Anyway, I grabbed my phone while I was still sleeping and took this shot of her, or maybe it was a him.

Another one of my finishes this month was the puzzle of the Netherlands. This one was challenging as the blocks of cheese filled the bottom half of the puzzle.

Next up, I decided to do some sewing. I found a pattern for a cute little tea holder and tissue holder. I made up, so far, about 18 sets and have mailed them to family and friends. I'm still make more.

The tea holders hold six individually wrapped tea bags in foil of different flavors.

I made up little stickers on the computer that said "Bless You" to put on the tissue holders. I also made up some of these little cards that say Enjoy on them using my Cricut machine and the card has a cute little saying inside about having tea with me. I tried to color coordinate the entire set. I think they turned out really well!

Another finish was my last jigsaw puzzle. I have no more left to do. Oh NO!!!! This one was the hardest one I have ever done. It was of Williamsburg and it was designed like a quilt. It's hard to explain how this one was. You had to look at it from all four sides. I had to move around the table to do it. You can see how I had to work it.

Did I mention it was a 1,000 piece one! YIKES!!! I didn't have Bernie's help on this one as he didn't like it!!

This month we also had what they called the flower moon. So of course, I had to go outside to take a photo of it. It was kind of different to look at as around the edges it appeared to be jagged, like a zinnia flower or cornflower. It was very full and pretty.

Now that the weather is finally cooperating and is what May is supposed to be about, I've been working a little outside. I just got my flowers to plant yesterday and today it's raining, so hopefully I'll get some pics of those for June's blog post.

With the weather shaping up, there are more people coming up here to the lake and with lots of people unemployed right now, they seem to be here all week long and not just on weekends. I go to the store, or dollar store to get bread and what is there..........................none!! How can you have a meal without bread. I tried for a while to get frozen bread to bake and wasn't able to get that until this past week. So, now I have 8 loaves of frozen bread in case we can't get any at the store. Here is one that I baked a few days ago! Only problem with baking bread.......it is so good that you practically can eat the entire loaf in two sittings.
Another YIKES!! Calories!!!! It is so good though.

I took this picture of a plant right outside our side door. I can't remember what it is called, but the new growth is a beautiful, rusty red color. I have two of these out there and they have been there for about ten years.

Memorial Day is this coming Monday, so I'd like to remember all those soldiers that have sacrificed their lives for our freedom, because FREEDOM isn't FREE!!