Breaking up the lillies

So in 2008 Liz and I went to a "plant sale" out in the boonies off Liberty Road in Sweet Home. The couple that were selling the plants were moving and the new owners did not want their nursery-sized cache of potted and in-ground plants. They were going for next to nothing and we scooped up as much as we could. We got all kind of plants: hostas, Shasta Daisies, a Chinese Maple (which didn't make it), Calla Lillies, irises and fire-poker plants to name a few. We also scored "a few" daylillies. Between the trip with Liz and the next day's trip with Josh, I got over 30 pots of Daylillies. All had 3+ plants in them and they came in a variety of colors.

This is one of the doubles that I have a ton of. This past summer I started taking pictures of the flowers as they bloomed and assigning a number to each type. I have 15 labeled with numbers so far - there are so many types of Daylillies that it is impossible to identify them now, but since all I care about right now is putting the colors together in the garden, I could care less about what their names are. Only about half bloomed last year so half of them are unlabeled to date. A week ago I set out to divide my lillies, or at least the ones that needed it the most to encourage the blooms and to increase the number of plants I got out of the season.

I divided all the #10, there were 6 pots and this is what each of them looked like when I popped them out of the pots. We have been collecting recycling bins from our renter neighbors when they move out--our garbage company doesn't use them any more and when people move out of their houses, they leave their bins on the sidewalk. We stash them in the garage and have found they make excellent planters! So, I bought five bags of soil and went to town with the #10 lillies. Out of the six pots I got nearly 150 plants! They haven't been fertilized yet, the weather hasn't really calmed down enough for me to be comfortable to fertilize. They'll take off when I fertilize them and I don't want the frost or snow to know them back. Maybe this weekend if it drys out - no use in fertilizing with liquid fertilizer if it is raining all the time, the only thing that will get fertilized will be the lawn! Here is a photo of the #10 lillies in their new "pots" and some other great blooms I have.

I finished another quilt!

So I took a class at Callapooya Quilts (http://www.callquilts.com/) in Brownsville two weekends ago just for fun. I had never taken a class and wanted to see what I could learn/get out of one. The teacher, Judy Clay, was awesome! The shop is great, a great big room with high ceilings and wood floors. They have several "shop dogs" so I didn't feel any qualms about bringing Annie and she was a very good girl. Marty, the shop owner even said she was a delight to have in the shop. *this is me dancing*

Anyways, the quilt we made is from a book called Turning Twenty Around the Block (http://www.friendfolks.com/store-detail.php?ID=1) and is made from twenty fat quarters - too easy! I talked a co-worker and her mom into taking the class with me and we had a really good time. Nichole had never made a quilt before but knew how to sew so I was confident that her quilt would turn out. So between the three of us, Nichole was in good hands. Judy was a great teacher and very patient with all of us - everyone is different and has different styles of working so anyone who can work with all those different styles is good in my book. So after four hours of cutting, the first class was over and we had homework to do! Mary and I put together most of our blocks, actually Mary finished her quilt so she was able to help Nichole with putting her quilt top together. The second class was all about putting the top together and I got all my blocks together. When I got home I put the borders on and was ready to quilt it!

Friday night when we went to Beaverton, I stayed at Tom and Diane's and quilted my quilt on her Gammil longarm. It takes a lot out of you but I think I am comfortable enough to start quilting designs now, I plan on starting this with a foundation pieced wall hanging I am donating to the Owen Denny Chapter of Pheasants Forever (http://www.owendenny-pheasantsforever.org/). Our breeder is a member and sponsor of this years banquet and asked me to donate something. I made her a wall hanging when we got Oakleigh from her.

Anyways, back to the Turning Twenty quilt. I had a lot of fun doing this quilt and I think I am going to do it again, it was super easy and I had some ideas for new color combos. I am going to donate the quilt to our Lebanon Altrusa Scholarship Fundraiser in April as a silent auction item. I hope the $50 reserve price doesn't price it out of the auction though. Here is to another good quilt! I am excited and hope it does well :o)

First post

This week was the week from Hades! I started my 5K training Sunday and it started out ok. The first day is walking 20 minutes, then days two and three are walking 30 minutes. By the middle of day two I thought I was going to have to repeat my first week because I was feeling awful. Annie is my walking buddy and she really is doing well with the daily exercise. Day four was a step up in the training, I walk for 5 minutes then run/jog for 30 seconds. The training gradually takes you from walking to walking & running/jogging to just running/jogging. There are two days a week that are rest days and I am going to have to get up at the same time everyday - it just isn't easy to get up later if I sleep in.

So, Sunday started my daily 5K training and Monday was an ok day, it was a Monday. Tuesday was tough. Since this is the first week of the month, all of my groups have meetings. In the morning I had our Board of Realtors' Realtor of the Year Banquet Comittee meeting. We are kind of making some things harder than they need to be but seem to all be working well. After that I had our weekly Altrusa meeting at the Legion. It was good just to sit and chat since we really didn't have any business. Then, it was back to work for another 4 hours and off to more meetings! I volunteered (will someone stop me?!) to be on the 2011 quilt show committee and we had a meeting at 530 after work. We met in the Library since the Senior Center was locked. Then, after that meeting we had our monthly guild meeting. I got home at 845 and was wiped out! That was Tuesday. Wednesday Josh and I met with Randall from First Investors and got that stuff squared away. Thursday was a fist for me, I attended my first Linn County Kennel Club meeting. It was all fun a games, talking about the 2010 Dog Show that they put on Valentine's Day weekend. Then people got snarky and snapped at each other telling each other how things were going to be. I have a feeling there may be some interesting meetings. Oh well, made me appreciate my old ladies with my other groups! Friday was another adventure all together that I hope to not repeat for a long time, better yet, never. We drove to Anthony and Shara's house for his birthday. I dropped Josh off at their house and I went to Tom and Diane's to quilt my Turning Twenty quilt I am donating to our Altrusa fundraiser. After I finished that, I went ot the party and proceeded to watch everyone get drunker'n skunks! Let's just say if I ever have to clean up puke in my car again I will be a very mean person. It was good to see everyone, it seems that I am starting to warm up to them and am more comfortable with all of Josh's friends from college.

Today was long-I finally got Josh into bed, the dirty clothes in the washer and my car cleaned out by 5am so I crashed ont he couch for a few hours. Josh got up at 9, I was amazed, and went to the gun show in Albany. I putzed, doing the dishes, laundry and I put the binding on the quilt that I quilted at Diane's last night. Then Josh and I went to the Albany Altrusa's "La Dolce Vida" fundraiser for KidzShop and had a blast. We even won a live auction item: two tickets to the Oregon Symphony, $50 to McCormick and Schmidt's, and $100 to Shilo Inns. All that for $125! Should be fun, I am looking forward to going out with Josh to a fancy-dancy dinner and concert.

Annie and Oakleigh out for a play

Just uploading the girls for a test.