A Buzzard's Day on the River (Columbus, TX)

The weather hasn't been the best since we arrived in Columbus.  I would say we have had maybe five good days for walks and cat outings.  

 The rest of the time, it has been very cold, heavy mist, or raining, so we have been stuck indoors except for trips to the grocery store and the Post Office.

We keep sending Dusty outside so he can see or feel for himself how bad the weather really is at the time.  He thinks we are doing it on purpose.  I wish we could switch the weather on and off.  Wouldn't that be nice?  ;)

  Dusty is driving us crazy!

During one of the few partly sunny days, the buzzards were taking advantage of the better weather across the river from us.  There must have been around 30 of them enjoying a day on the river.  Some were splashing in the water,

but most were just sitting on the sand bar.  Whenever the sun peeked out from the clouds, the buzzards would spread their wings facing towards the sun.  As soon as the sun disappeared, they would close their wings and wait for the next sunbeam.

Today, we are under Flash Flood Watch until 1 am Tuesday......and watch I am.  Having a river view is great during nice sunny weather.  Not so good when it has been raining all night.  Plus, we were hearing an air boat going up and down the river.  We were wondering at the time if they were checking the river's condition since they were going slow and seemed to be stopping a lot along the way.

We woke to heavy rain this morning and we have been watching the Colorado river rising slowly throughout the day.  This was the first photo I took this morning around 10 am when I can still see the sand bar at the point (just above & to the left of the sign).....

Around 1 pm, the rain is still coming down and the sand bar is gone...

 and the low land is slowly disappearing...

Still rising at 3 pm...

The campground office is keeping an eye on the river and they are in contact with the reservoir upriver from us.  We are about 20 feet above the river and they will let us know if we need to move.   Odd, we were dealing with heavy rains and flooding last year in Seaside, OR.  Maybe we should think about adding pontoons to the sides of our motorhome.  How do you think that would look?

On The Cutting Board

One good thing that has happened since we arrived here - I have made several trips to the Post Office to mail out orders.  The most recent order was very interesting for me.  The customer wanted a similar Happy Camper for her husband without the hearts and flowers.  We had some great conversations about our interests in camping as well.

After our conversations, I came up with this design with a cardinal and swirls of wind for hubby. 

 I love this design so much that I think I will do it again in different colors.

In the meantime, I have figured out a way to add dogs inside the doors of the next two trailers.

The dogs are designed by Laurel Furnell and I have been trying for sometime to add the begging dog

and the Dachshund.

I thought adding the bird looking down would make more sense of why the dog was wagging his tail and what he was look up to.

Well, I spent most of the day on the computer and watching the river rise.  Time to relax with a little sewing.

Happy Quilting!

2015 Happy New Year! (Lakehills, TX)

We traveled through Boerne, TX (pronounced Bernie) on our way to Medina Lake. I think I gave myself a sore neck trying to see all the Main Street sights. The one that really caught my eye was St. Peters.  

The building is gorgeous and I had to go back for photos.

After I took some photos, we drove around the backside.  The front is old, but the area in the back has been added on in recent years.  I thought they had done a wonderful job of blending the old with the new.

 

Here's a photo of where Medina Lake should be.  The water is all but gone.  Now it is filled in with trees and vegetation.  There were cattle grazing on the far side below the old water level.

We found out that rattling plastic bags brings the deer out of the woods.  Dan shook the bag twice and they came running!  Two decided they were not going to take a chance of missing out on some goodies and ate out of Dan's hands.  He had to throw the food to the others.

One more thing...we did not feed them near our motorhome.  We learned that lesson from our neighbor.  He is still getting deer loitering around his site and it has been almost a week since he fed them!

Oh!  I almost forgot to tell you what I found at the Fredericksburg Trade Days.  Trade Days is basically a Flea Market/Artists Booths plus food and it is huge.  You can find just about anything there.  I loved looking at the old buildings being used for some of the shops as well as some of the antiques for sale like old wringer washers and even old bed springs.  I bet this is an upcycle artist's dream come true.

 We spent a lot of time roaming around, but it was seeing these 2 vintage trailers that I found most interesting.  Both trailers are a Serra Scotty.  Check out the wheel well design.  Very different.  It is too bad they were not open.  It would have been interesting to see inside of both of them.

 This Shabby Chic pink one is extra cute with the outside staging.  The swan made from an old tire is cute and I really love the old pink bike!

I am thinking about a new mug rug in this vintage trailer style.  I'm not sure how I will be able to incorporate the wheel well design.  Something new to work on!

On The Cutting Board

I'm trying very hard to whittle down my fabric pile.  I started by cutting up the fabric for the Layer Cake Recipe pattern.  I was going to sew it together before starting another, but it seemed easier to do more cutting.

So....I started cutting for the Crazy 8 pattern.  The two piles on the left were already done from a previous cutting frenzy for scrappy quilts.  Now, I have four more theme-related quilts ready to sew together.  But...wait!....there's more!....

I have been wanting to use the pink and black cat fabric for quite some time.  Once I started cutting, I could not stop there.  I wanted to applique a big cat in the center, so that is done.  The quilt is coming out small - only 36 x 36.  I need to add borders and I would like to add some length to it.  I might need to get a little creative with the leftover fabric since there isn't a lot left.

I have been working on some more red and aqua (R&A) Happy Campers.  I recently came across one of my R&A trailers in Pinterest.  I'm surprised how many times it has been Pinned!  342 times!  If you do not follow Pinterest, This is like Facebook Sharing.  I guess it is safe to say that it is the most popular color combination.  None of the other Happy Campers have been pinned as often

Now, I need to setup the sewing machine and get some sewing done.  I also need to finish embroidering the edges on all the Happy Campers!  Oh no, the cats want out...hmmm, maybe they will decide it is too cold to stay outside and I can get back to sewing....
Happy Quilting!