Odds and Ends

We arrived home late yesterday afternoon. Already, we have the trailer unpacked, and most of the laundry is done. Smitty has been out. Sadie and Smitty have explored Smitty's clubhouse for any stray critters that might have moved in while we were gone, and we've all had a pretty good night's sleep. Can't beat that.

When I took the pictures off my phone this morning, I found a few stray odds and ends. On our last day in Swan Valley we had breakfast at a local restaurant with our friends Bill and Marei. As is often seen in small towns, a corner of the restaurant had shelves of items hand made by the locals for sale. When I saw this, there was no turning back. It had to be mine.

From there, it was a fairly short drive to Boise where we stayed for the night before moving on yesterday morning. As we were pulling out of the RV park at Boise, we noticed this catio. Pretty fancy, huh? Any cat would be envious of this.

It isn't far from Boise to the state line, and this sign is always a welcome sight. As much as we love traveling (especially RV traveling), it's always good to be home.

It was still a long way home, however. We caught our first glimpse of the Columbia River just east of Arlington.

Eastern Oregon is what we think of as high desert and fairly arid. Western Oregon is a much wetter region, and it wasn't long before our rainy western climate caught up with us.

It rained hard the rest of the way home, which is always scary. Fortunately, it was a Saturday and so traffic was light and fairly calm.

We had leftovers in the refrigerator for dinner last night, and then we watched a little TV and hit the sack. This morning has been spent getting things pretty much back to normal. It was nice to spend some time on my embroidery this morning in a more leisurely fashion than our driving days allow.

You can see that this one is almost finished. There's just a little left in the middle, and then there's a bat flying in the upper right corner...a little difficult to see in this image.

Now it's rehooped and ready to go. A couple of more sittings and I should have it finished.

In the final half hour before we left home two weeks ago, I started cutting strips for my newest project while I waited for Mike to finish his packing. This is the beginning of the table topper I'm doing for the Let's Book It challenge in September. This is the Pumpkin Patch table topper designed by Julie Weaver and included in the current issue of Quilter's World.

Before we left, I was able to pick out the fabrics I wanted to use, and then I got five of six colors of strips cut to piece the pumpkins together.

When I was ready to cut the sixth color strips, Mike came and announced that he was packed up and ready to go. Here's where I left it, and there it sits, waiting for me.

And now, I'm back where I left off. Things are pretty well put away and it's time to sew. Fortunately, Past Self was smart enough to freeze some leftover dinner items. Last night Present Self checked the freezer and pulled out three days worth of meals. It's nice not to have to go to the grocery store right away.

So what's been going on in your neck of the woods?