Fiddling around on Friday

It's 1 p.m. and I just finished one of the hardest jigsaw puzzles EVER! It was only 500 pieces but I struggled with this puzzle all the way until the end.  Main problem was so many pieces would fit just fine and dandy and even had the color right but..... after several hours of not getting anywhere, I'd find misplaced pieces that belonged elsewhere.  I eventually discovered that I could not force a piece in; if it didn't fall in easily, it was the wrong piece.  Drove me crazy!

And thank you to Joanne Gilles who gave me a sack of material scraps when we met at the casino a couple days back.  I've been using scraps to slowly make these "crumb quilt squares" which I"ll probably make into a twin bed blanket.

I downsized a lot of material when I was undertaking my cleaning out project to prepare for a move. Slowly, however, I'm accumulating again.  Just too much easy to pick up some cheap fat quarters and I do enjoy monkeying around at the sewing machine.

I've continued to paint rocks and learning new techniques as I go.  My paint pens, which I'm eager to start using, don't always work as well on top of rocks I've painted so I've got to try and only use a light coat of paint before detailing them with the pens.  One of the outdoor rocks I gave Jenni started losing it's color and the paint was chipping away so I've attempted to repair it but the repair isn't going that well so I may have to repaint a new rock. I wonder if maybe I didn't spray the rock well enough the first time.  Just ordered some Mod Podge Outdoor which is supposed to be good for sealing rocks after painting. Also bought some Mod Podge spray sealer to see if it's better than the cans I've been buying at Walmart.

I went back to look over previous blog posts as I was looking for a particular picture.  Was interesting to see the various things I chose to post. I didn't find any of it all that interesting at the time but I've decided that my blog posts may not be interesting but they work as a sort of journal for me and help me remember what was going on when.  I was especially amazed at the pictures I shared of everything I was downsizing. Man!  What a long hard project that was. I'm glad it's over!

I've got the Great British Baking Show on right now. I enjoy having it on for background entertainment.  It's a pretty good show too.  I've also enjoyed one on Amazon Prime called William and Mary.  He's an undertaker who also sings in a church choir and plays in a blues band. A widow with two daughters and he finds his future wife at a speed dating place.  While he sees people out, she sees people in as she's a midwife. Divorced with two boys.  Entertaining. Stars the guy who was on PBS show "Doc Martin."  Another favorite of mine.

My favorite show right now, which I'm sure I've discussed in the past is The Walking Dead. After Mary and Jenni told me repeatedly how I would like it, I finally decided to tune in and give it a try. I don't like zombie shows but I wanted to judge for myself.  Mary told me that I would get past the gore and blood and guts of zombies and would end up focusing on the stars. And she was right.  I have to force myself to not tune in until after dinner as I want to make it last. It's inched up to #2 in my favorites list.  The Sopranos still reigns #1.  Some (I should say all) of the twists and turns that happen make me wonder who is writing this stuff. Absolutely fascinating and I find myself hooting and hollaring almost nightly.  Sometimes I get a little alarmed at how happy I am when the bad guys meet a horrible death but oh well, it is what it is.  Season 10 is showing on AMC now but I don't get that channel so I'm thankful I can binge watch episodes on Prime. I'm up to season 6 and I hear Stephen King has written one of the episodes.  It's one of his favorite tv shows. My two favorites are Norman Reedus and Josh McDermitt. Check it out on IMDB.

Granddaughter Catie is traveling via car from Florida to Kent, WA with her boyfriend, Louie. She set up this program on Google so we fan follow her route and where she is each day. Amazes me really how brave she is. Maybe all young people are like that. The google map shows up in my email daily and when I click on it, her face appears where she is on the map and by what town. I'll be glad when this trip is over. Watching the weather news everywhere makes me nervous.

Lost another friend this week. He'd been having various health issues for a while but it's always so sad and unexpected. Rest in peace, Bob Blaurock.

 Shown here 2nd from the right at a high school reunion at the Elks Club in PT.