I Had Forgotten…

I had forgotten…  the smell of rain in the air.

I had forgotten…  the wonderful sound of rain hitting the roof.

I had forgotten… the almost instantaneous perking up of the plants outside.

I had forgotten… the quick coolness (from 100 down to 75 degrees in about 15 minutes) brought on by rain-cooled air.

I had forgotten… the lift in your spirit, just knowing that we finally have enough rain to actually measure in the rain gauge.  Well, we COULD measure it IF I had remembered to buy a new rain gauge like DH asked me to. 

I had forgotten… what a blessing rain is because we’ve not had measureable rainfall in MONTHS at my house.  Others around us have received small showers, but we only got “4-foot rains”, as my hubby calls them… 1 drop every 4-feet. 

I had forgotten… but I now remember, because it has been raining steadily for the last hour.  I am totally guessing, but I think perhaps at least an inch of rain has fallen, and the weather service says more is headed our way.

Our “brave” puppy PJ is curled up on the couch, shivering and tucking her tail each time she hears a clap of thunder.  She will battle with snakes, but can’t stand the sound of thunder.  Go figure!  I guess we each choose where to display our courage.

I had forgotten… but I now remember to sing praises to the One who sends the blessing of rain to us.

Thank YOU, Lord, for the refreshing rain!  What a blessing it is to hear “…the sound of abundance of rain” again!   (1 Kings 18:41 )

KAT

Way To Go, PJ!!

She doesn’t look it in this picture, but PJ, our “rescued” dog,  is one very helpful pet!   Not only does she keep good watch over DH as he works around the place, she also does not like any animal intruders and is quick to alert us when something encroaches on our yard (except for people… she doesn’t even bark at people!). 

A few days ago we were visiting with friends in Natchez, MS and they were telling us about their dog, Hunter, being such a good watchdog.  This summer Hunter has alerted them to the presence of 6 snakes in their yard.  The first 4 were harmless, but the last 2 were rattlesnakes.  They told us that Hunter has a special bark he uses when he spots a snake.  They can tell from the sound of his bark that he has found another one.

This morning I was in my bedroom and PJ was right outside the window.  She started barking strangely.  After the story from my friends this really caught my attention… I usually just ignore PJ when she barks.  She was staring at a spot on the ground and going around it in circles, but not getting close.  She was barking and growling.  I quickly went outside to see what was the problem.  Because our grass is mostly brown from the drought, it took a while to spot it… there in the grass close to the steps was a 14” long snake.  It was very hard to see, but I could see enough to tell it was a poisonous snake (stocky body, triangular head).  DH had just left to go to a funeral.  I could not let the snake get away… he might later bite one of my pets or one of us.

I looked and found a sharp-shooter shovel.  The snake is now history.  This is my first poisonous snake kill, and I hope I don’t have to do it again any time soon.  Upon investigation, the snake was a water moccasin  copperhead. (I have also discovered that I need a class in snake identification.  Because he was in the process of molting, the coloration was not easily identifiable as a copperhead, but more the color of a moccasin!  DH helped with the identification when he got home.)  I hope he doesn’t have any relatives that come calling!!   I will for SURE be paying more attention to where I am walking in the yard!

ATTA GIRL, PJ!!  You have earned yourself an extra treat today.  Right now, she is laying on her quilt on the couch in the COOL(after I spent a while dusting her off) .  Tonight we will ignore the vet’s suggestion that she is to be on a stricter diet to lose weight and give her some sort of food treat.

Add one more thing to my list of country-living skills…

Kathy Ellzey ---  SNAKE SLAYER!!!

Have a blessed day, with no slithery reptiles!

KAT 

A New “Twist” On Painted Fabric

I LOVE to paint my own fabric!  Cindy Roth at Longarm University has a video on how she does this… very different than the methods I have used.  Check it out HERE.  Really neat technique!!

Here are examples of what mine have looked like in the past.  I think it may be time for ME to grab the paints and “play” again!!

   

Speaking of which, I really must find a project that will actually USE some of this painted fabric… right now it is just sitting on the shelf.

Be blessed, and USE the creativity the Creator has given you!  We all have it in some area of our life!

KAT

I Could Be Quilting…

But I’m not.  I have decided to actually do a blog post of unusual quilts I have done.

I could be showing you pictures of 2 really unusual quilts I did, but I’m not.  I did a totally STUPID thing when transferring them from one album to another and they are forever gone!  One was a quilt made from real FLAGS from foreign countries.  A missionary collected the flags and a customer pieced this into a quilt… double sided with flags.  It was most unusual… so sorry you can’t see it.       The other one was a baby quilt made from bibs, shirts, and onesies.  The customer cut out the cute pictures and sayings (such as, “Baby’s First Christmas, Baby’s first Halloween”, etc.) and appliqued them on quilt blocks.  It turned out SOOOO cute and unusual!!  SIGH…  I know… a picture is worth a thousand words!

I could be quilting, but I am not.  I AM kicking myself 5 times for being so STUPID on this!  KICK-KICK-KICK-KICK-KICK!  Quilt pictures are not the only things I lost… some hunting pictures, customer quilt pictures, other assorted stuff that I wanted to keep.  UUUGGGHHH!  That’s what I get for trying to organize my thousands of pictures without proper knowledge!  Some of the older ones may be retrievable from backups… we will see.

I could be quilting, but I’m not.  I decided to save my strength for dancing tonight.  DH and I are taking Cajun dance lessons at NSU.  We are making progress.  Our heads know what to do, but that does not always connect with our feet.  BUT we ARE having lots of fun and getting some exercise, too.

I could be quilting, but I’m not.  I decided today is the day I start plowing through the stacks of things in my office/sewing room to get it in some sort of organization.  (Actually, I am doing that today because I am looking for my other Cajun Dance Music CD, which I REALLY need!  See above paragraph.)  This will probably require me to totally unload the whole room and start over with placing things in some logical order so I can perhaps actually FIND things when I am through.  Why am I such a pack rat??  I promised #1 son I would have the computer area cleaned out by the time he gets back from offshore, Sept. 1.  I have a deadline!  SHEESH!  Why didn’t I tell him I would have it done by CHRISTMAS instead?

I could be quilting, but I’m not.  Instead I am taking pictures of socks just so I have a few pictures to post with this.  I know you are tired of posts with no pictures! So here they are…  Of course, you are probably tired of sock pictures too, because that seems to be the only things I am posting lately.  Hang tight… other pictures are coming soon, if I don’t accidently send them to the recycle bin before I can get them posted,

Top pair:  Felici Rainbow.  I LOVE these.  (These are the pair of socks for August… all done.)

Bottom pair:  handpainted Tree Fort, the pair for July.

And you know I can’t go without something on the knitting needles, so I cast on 2 pair.

 

The red pair is for me… cotton yarn with color accent strips.  The purple pair is for Katie Bug.  I’ve had a bit of a set-back on them… when she tried them on last night we discovered they were way too tight, so I had to rip WWAAAYYYY back on them and increase the size.  I was almost through with it!!  Now I get to do it “re-over-again”, as my Mom says.

The next post will contain QUILT PICTURES, I promise!!  I actually have finished several of my quilts in the last month, so I will share those with you (and try not to lose the pictures in the meantime!)

Be blessed!

KAT