Summer colors

pretty pink hydrangeas

white hydrangeas

green grapes

purple lavender

green plums

and red tomatoes.

The first two tomatoes of the year! No worries, the remaining tomatoes are much less tattered. Must have been all those storms this spring?

so pretty.

Sashing the one-a-day blocks

Just when you thought I abandoned the one-a-day, quilt-along, nine-patch, red and green Christmas quilt, I make some major progress.

This weekend I sewed all the short sashing pieces to the blocks and sewed the blocks into rows. I'm still working on sewing the sashed rows together.

At this pace, I think I'll manage to have it done by Christmas.

hair-b-gone

Today I donated 9.5 inches of my hair to Pantene Beautiful Lengths.

This is the classic "before" photo. I was kinda nervous.

Secured and ready to chop.

After the 9.5 inches were lobbed off.

All cut and styled. I felt like I lost about 10 pounds.

I chose to donate to Beautiful Lengths for a few reasons – their length requirement is eight inches (much less than other foundations) and they donate their wigs to adult women who have lost their hair due to cancer. It's humbling to know that my hair will help comfort a woman without hair.

I didn't realize how dense my hair was. No wonder it took me so long to blow-dry it.

To top it off, I love my new (low maintenance) hair.

WNDF: Big Boy

Today's Weird North Dakota Food feature spotlights Big Boy. Bismarck's Big Boy restaurant is a local attraction. It's a drive-thru-only restaurant, with a few picnic tables out back. There always seems to be a line, but it's so worth it.

The menu is quite lengthy for a drive-thru, and to someone who's never been there - would probably be very confusing.

I highly recommend the pizza burger flying style, and fries with gravy. Flying style is basically two pieces of white bread, grilled in a sandwich maker.

To my understanding (and from my own research) I believe that the pizza burgers flying style and the fries with gravy are a local specialty, not available at other Big Boy restaurants.

Starting with A

I have an idea. It's in the ... how should I say ... ummm ... very very very beginning stage.

My goal is to find the hidden letters A through Z in my surroundings in life – at work, at home, in town, etc. I found my first letter today and by chance it is A. It's the side of a chair at work.

Once I get the better part of the alphabet finished, I will be able to spell things with the letters. Oh yes, I think this will be fun.

What letters are you surrounded by?

Lots of green

My little green plumbs are getting larger. I think I have four. Doesn't seem like much but compared to not having any in the past years, I'm very excited about them.

The hydrangea is blooming and has the prettiest dark green leaves (and wow, such beautiful purple and blue flowers).

Last night my mom treated us to "taco truck" tacos. Complete with homemade guacamole. Here are the toppings.

Here is a ready-to-eat "taco truck" taco. If you're not familiar with them, a "taco truck" taco is something that is served in my hometown (and many cities) out of the side of a truck. They are an open-face corn tortilla, topped with meat (beef, pork of chicken), sauteed green onions, cilantro, fresh lime juice, radish, and salsa. Delicious.

We decided we needed a bit more green ... so my mom and I painted a wall in our living room.

Here it is completed. I am still amazed at what a difference a gallon of paint makes. We also did some minor furniture moving, but didn't purchase anything new. Sorry for the crooked photo, it was the only way I could include my favorites in the room.

One-a-day x 10 weeks = 70 blocks = all done!

Now that I have all 70 of these block finished it's time for the tedious work ... the sashing.

We've been so busy lately this may be a project for another day or week ... or month.

Here are all 70 hanging out together. What a nice looking bunch.

Check out the one-a-day nine-patch quilt-along group.

Happy four-day weekend

We're in full vacation mode. And lovin' it.

Mom and Dad and Caitlyn and Grandma Katy are all here visiting. The weather is great. We're on vacation from work. And most importantly, we're having fun.

Today we headed to Scotty's for lunch. It's a long-standing drive-in in Bismarck. It was delicious, as usual. I love the vintage-ness of it.

My yard continues to produce some great flowers - here's a selection of the blooms this week.

Mandevilla, above

Clematis

Delphinium - from Grandma Clarice - thank you!