Late June flowers

I can't seem to get daisies to grow in the yard, but these behind the garage are doing well.

Our lilies. Some call these ditch lilies and don't like them but I do so they stay.

Our only surviving day lily from when we had the yard landscaped in 2015.

Our coneflowers are starting to bloom.

And this isn't a flower but it's a houseplant I got last summer. I kept it inside last summer but decided to set it outside this year. It's grown so much! Google Lens says it's Purple Heart, Tradescentia pallida.

The lamp is fixed

Andy replaced the switch on the craftsman-style lamp I found at an estate sale.

Here's Andy admiring his work. We initially put it in the living room. B was a little concerned that it doesn't match the floor lamp and nce the sun set it doesn't really give off much light.

We're thinking it's better here, on the buffet, as decorative lighting.

E’s first quilt pattern

E received her shipment of 200 quilt patterns she had printed. It's a quilt of monorails (based on Disney's monorails) that she designed, pieced and quilted. She has an agreement with a quilt shop in Snohomish to teach the pattern in a class this October. Before that, she needs to hang the quilt in the shop to advertise the upcoming class. Hopefully, people sign up for the class. E sells her pattern to the shop for a small profit then the store marks it up more to sell to customers. This could lead to designing more patterns or being contacted by fabric companies to design quilts. She has big goals. Go, E!

Smoky in the city

The smoke from the Canadian wildfires has hit the Chicago area hard today. Lots of towns are under air-quality alerts. Here's a pic looking down the next alley. You can smell the smoke too.

Andy sent this pic from his office downtown. You can barely see the boats in the lake.

The sun peeking through the smoke as Andy left his office and walked to the train this afternoon.

The sunset view from our back porch. It's expected to be smoky tomorrow too, but a little clearer.

I would usually walk to the store but since it was smoky I decided to drive. As I was leaving the CVS parking lot, the car hit a milestone.

No one will notice

I was dressed first for church Sunday - pink tank top and a black skort. Andy comes down dressed in a pinkish shirt and navy shorts. OMG! We match, I said. He said no one will notice. Wrong. My friend, M, who generally serves as the church greeter, first noticed it. Then, we were seated and our minister noticed it. And those are the two who mentioned it. I'm guessing others noticed and didn't say anything. My only explanation is that when you've been married almost 33 years you think alike.

The Heartwreckers

Andy was up crazy early to make donuts Saturday but he was awake enough to see The Heartbreakers, a Tom Petty tribute band, at Fitzgerald's that afternoon. They opened with "Listen to Her Heart" which might be my top Petty song - probably because you rarely hear it on the radio.

We were sitting in the shade but not under the tent so these trees kept dropping little green things. We had to cover our beers with our phones. The couple sitting next to us covered their drinks with their phones too.

The little green things are in my hair, on my shirt, on my shorts.

The played for two hours and performed all of Petty's hits. I think there were two songs I didn't recognize. Sitting behind a pole was a little annoying but we needed to be in the shade.

The outside bar was closed off for a wedding reception. Near the end of the show these two women (on the left) came over from the reception to dance.

Kitchen dedication

We celebrated the completion of the church's Fellowship Hall and kitchen renovation today after worship. This wall has been covered with paint that makes it usable as a dry-erase board.

This is the chair of the 150th Campaign Committee that raised funds for the project. I was on the publicity part of that committee. Andy was part of the design committee.

Quite the turnout for a summer Sunday.

Let's eat!

Attention-getting

Now this is how you advertise a garage sale! Certainly got my attention.

Allison and I went to a few yard sales Friday. Guess my find of the day was this lamp for $15 from an estate sale. Not sure where to put it yet. I think we need to replace the switch. It's a little tempermental.

Other random finds. The Christmas tree candle holder is crystal and, I found out from Googling, from Poland. Paid $2 and it's listed on ebay for $18. We went to a few local sales Saturday morning but didn't have much luck.

Bought this wrought-iron hanger for the yard.

Hershey Week 5

L had Monday off so she did some shopping. She was back at the Goodwill bins and found this cute leather jacket. They charge by the pound so she estimated the jacket cost her less than $2.

L had the day off Wednesday. She opened the freezer door and the glass portion of a blender that was on the too of the fridge fell down and cracked the apartment's glass stovetop. Who stores a heavy blender on the fridge? She did notify management and they'll send out a maintenance person. I don't want them using the stovetop if it's not safe. Hopefully she won't be charged for it.

After breaking the apartment she went to a Salvation Army store, suggested by her thrifty manager, and found some cute work-appropriate clothes. There's a button missing but the dress came with an extra button so L will sew that on.

This skirt goes down to her ankles.

She plans to wear this to work Thursday.

And she said she couldn't resist this cup for her favorite manager, the one who suggested she check out the store. L said she needs a wine glass because coffee won't cut it.

Work group on Friday. Two interns on the left, the rest are managers and L. They're wearing pink because It was National Pink Day. Who knew?

B’s 24th bday

I made a quiche for B's birthday breakfast yesterday. We were going to take him out for dinner but he wanted to wait until tonight.

He has pretty much everything he needs so we gave him free "rent" for the month and a box of Cosmic Brownies. I made the cute birthday sign. Allison stopped by and gave him some cookies. (He's not big on sweets.)

We did light some candles on a pan of festive birthday brownies after dinner yesterday.

And we sang "Happy Birthday" to him, of course.

B chose Maggiano's for his birthday dinner tonight so we went to Oak Brook.

Andy got the lasagna and Brad and I both had the chicken parmesan. We all ordered basic pasta entrees to take home for lunch tomorrow.

Muffles’ game

Muffles likes to go to bed with us and head-butts Andy all night long. He also brings up this toy mouse. Here it is sitting outside our bedroom door. Even when I know to look for it, it's a bit jarring to find it on the bedroom floor (or to step on it) when I'm half asleep.

And once we're up for the day, Muffles goes upstairs and brings the toy back to the living room. It's a weird little game he plays.

And when he brings it into the living room he meows really loud.

Cheese board puzzle

August and I thought this cheese board puzzle looked interesting. It was slow going at first but once B said to concentrate on getting the words together, it went faster.

It had lots of pieces that didn't interlock, they just sat side by side. And lots of oddly shaped pieces. Most annoying those were these grammar mistakes.

Ugh. Once I saw them I had to hurry up and finish it. Couldn't stand it any longer.

Oy.

Who prints a puzzle with errors?

Quilt Shop Hop

E did a lot of driving Saturday for the Quilt Shop Hop. She visited nine shops and got stamps at eight of them (Google took her to one shop that wasn't the location giving out stamps).

She went into Seattle, took the car ferry to Bainbridge Island, drove all around and came home via Olympia. The circles are some of the places where she stopped at quilt shops. D stayed home and took the dogs to a dog park. She said I should fly out next year and we can visit quilt shops for two weekends. I'll have to think about that.

Cute quilt shop. She said this one was in Port Gamble, Wash.

And E made this from the Squares and Stars quilt pattern. I believe she's going to give it to D's sister to welcome their second baby arriving later this year.