Monday, August 25, 2008

A Boy's Best Friend

Having grown up with Newfoundland dogs, I couldn't imagine not having some four legged friends in my life! Here is a beautiful picture of middle son and his beloved Sophie. Sophie was abandoned a couple of years ago on a very busy road and made her way up our long laneway. She was in a horrific state and terribly malnourished. She has found a very loving home here on our farm and more importantly she has found her best friend. Middle son and Sophie just adore one another, soulmates.

There is no greater way to teach a child unconditional love than with a pet. Both Farmer Boy and I grew up with pets and so too will our children. It has taught them kindness, patience, loyalty and above all it is better to share your journey in life with a special friend than go it alone. Now if only Farmer Boy would let me get a donkey or two, I really want a donkey!!!!
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Sunday, August 24, 2008

Summer Holidays are Over!!

It has been a long time since I last blogged, in fact I just discovered that it was May!!! Yikes, time flies when your having fun. Anywho, I would like to say that I have been busy with my Bed & Breakfast but sadly the tourism industry has been brought to it's knees this year -- my business was down 50%. We had rain every single day here in Ireland, and I mean EVERY SINGLE DAY!!!! I had a lovely couple sitting in my dining room one morning, it was pouring outside, calling their airline begging to get on the next flight out. I asked them to take me with them but it was not to be!!

The poor farmers are watching their barley and wheat turn to porridge in the fields, there will be major losses this year. The children are heading back to school a week from tomorrow and they never made it to the beach once this summer. Sooooo, instead of sunning myself this summer and seeing as though I had no guests to entertain, I actually did quite alot of quilting.

Do any of you remember these star blocks??? I used Allspice fabric in a pattern from Heather Mulder Peterson's book - Fat Quarter Cottage (I think). There is a friend of mine up the road in Wicklow who is doing the same pattern with Allspice but with a slightly different color scheme. She has fallen far behind and needs to set a goal of one or two star blocks per night!!!! You know who you are!!!!!
When I started this pattern I thought I would never see the end of it, but I persevered and the end result is at the bottom of this post. I have many things to share over the coming weeks, hopefully I will get back into the swing of things now that school is starting back.


I love this fabric, I love it soo much that it sat in my stash for nine months because I couldn't bear to cut it up. Honestly I think quilters are crazy people!!!! My stash continues to grow and farmer boy is growing very suspicious of the plastic containers that keep appearing in my sewing corner!!!! I am preparing for another famine, a fabric famine!!!!!
Here she is in all her glory!!!! My beautiful quilt is in Rebecca's hands now (my longarm professional friend), it will hopefully be on my bed for Christmas!!! Rebecca is going to long arm this beauty in November, we both have a long list of projects that are of a greater priority so my quilt will have to wait until Rebecca can give it her full attention!!!!

By the way those are my three monkeys over there and our Austrian student Michaela. I taught Michaela how to quilt this summer, I will post a picture of her quilt in the coming days!!!!

I have lots to share and hope you will be back soon!!!!

Keep smiling!
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