A Summer Bucket List

I'm back, I'm back, I'm back! 

The cataract surgery on my left eye was last Wednesday. It was done very late in the day. By the time it happened, I was quite anxious, so I ended up having a little more anesthesia, but the surgery went well. The only downside of the anesthesia was that I was quite fatigued and a little dizzy for a few days. I'll see my doctor on Thursday for my one week checkup, so hopefully I'll get a thumbs up, and life will return to being at  least somewhat normal again :)

My husband had been out running a few errands for me over the weekend. When he returned, he said, "look what I found!" When he came out of the store, he looked down, and there was a folded piece of paper laying on the ground. He picked it up. What possessed him to pick it up, I don't know. Most often, people will just walk over a piece of paper laying on the ground. But, he did pick it up, unfolded it, and saw a teenage girl's summer bucket list. When he opened it, and discovered what it was, he looked around trying to find who it might belong to, but he said that no one was around. Rather than just throw it in the garbage, he thought he would bring it home to me. The list is pictured below.

As I read it over, I thought, "what a great and doable list!" 

*Get Tan

*Watch the sunrise on the beach

*Henna (tattoo)

*lolla (Lollapalooza, a music festival)

*Bonfire

*Tubing

*Paddle Boarding

*Movie In The Park

*Lacrosse camp with Katie

*Read a good book

*Watch The Sunset

*Have a Summer Fling

*Acai Bowls

*Go On Runs

*Spend the night in the tent

*Go Jet Skiing

*Dance In The Rain

*Skinny Dip (:/)

*Margies (for ice cream)

*See Mamma Mia with Kelsi

*Cubs Game

And finally;

BE HAPPY

As I read the list, I thought about when the last time was that I was excited about summer and all that it could hold. To be honest, I don't remember. Sad :( As I continued to study the list, I thought, let this be an inspiration. 

*Get tan. I do not want to sit out in the sun and get a tan, but I can go for a spray on tan. 

*Watch The Sunrise. I can get up early, go to the beach and watch the sunrise. After all, it's only a couple of miles away. 

*Henna. How fun would it be to get a henna tattoo?!! 

*Going to Lollapalooza is not my thing, but an evening at the  Grant Park Music Festival would be lovely. Sitting out on the grounds and listening to some classical music under the stars. Lovely!

*A bonfire would be fun. Haven't done that for a very long time.

*Tubing. Again, not in a very long time, but such fun.

*Paddle Boarding. I've thought it would be fun, so why not?!!

*Movie in the park. Last year, we saw Romeo and Juliet in the park. Such fun. I'll see what I can come up with.

*I won't be going to Lacrosse camp with Katie ;)

*Read a good book. I can actually cross that off my list. More about that in an upcoming post. 

*Watch the sunset. I think an evening in Michigan, sitting on the shore and watching the sunset would be so lovely. 

*Have a summer fling. Not quite sure what she meant by this. I won't be having a "fling" in the traditional sense, but maybe there's something nontraditional that I can do :) Any hints???

*Acai Bowls. Sign me up! I've already downloaded a few recipes!

*Go on runs. I won't be running this summer, but I will take some nice long hikes. There's a 15 mile hike that I have been wanting to do.

*Spend the night in the tent. I just don't like to camp, so I will not add this to my list.

*Go jet skiing. Another thing I've wanted to do. I'm sure there's somewhere to rent jet skis here in Chicago.

*Dance in the rain. Why not? :)

*Skinny Dip. That won't happen!

*Margies for ice cream. I can walk there, so that may happen in the next day or two :)

*See Mamma Mia with Kelsi. Well, I won't be seeing anything with Kelsi ;), and I'm not a big fan of Mamma Mia, but there is an opera that I would like to see.

*Cubs game...nah. Not much of a baseball fan. 

What I want to add to my list is;

*Go zip lining

*White water rafting

And again, last but not least;

BE HAPPY!

Maybe this will inspire you as well. We don't have to be a child to enjoy summer and all it has to hold. Write out your summer bucket list. Share it here in the comments. I would love to see some of your ideas for having fun, and things that will make you happy. We'll meet again at the end of summer to see how well we did.

BTW, if anyone by chance knows who the list above belongs to, let me know. I would love to return it. At the very least, a great big thank you to this child for opening my eyes to some fun filled days :)

On The Road, Row By Row

I am not much of a quilter. All my life, I have been surrounded, and warmed by beautiful quilts that my great-grandmother and my grandmother made. I have a wonderful quilt that my great-grandmother made, a whole cloth quilt. A while back, I washed it and when I hung it to dry, I could see that the batting was not batting, but another quilt, quite possibly, one that my great-great-grandmother made. I would love to see it, and have thought about taking out the stitches in a corner to reveal the quilt inside. We'll see :)

There's a quilt that hangs in a guest room that my grandmother made when she was 14 years old, a lovely take on a wedding ring quilt. It warms my soul whenever I enter the room. I also have 2 precious little doll quilts that my grandmother made for my mother when she was a child, and I then played with. What's amazing to me is that she actually hand-pieced these little treasures. And to think that I had those little quilts outside, and even wrapped my cat up in them :/ 

Every once in a while, I will put a quilt together, but my grandmother would probably roll her eyes at the fact that all the piecing is done on the machine, as well as the quilting. At the moment, I have one of those "for the rest of my life projects" in the works, a yo-yo quilt. I work on it for a while, grow tired of it, put it away, and then break it out again maybe a year later. One day ;) 

If you listened to the interview I did with Tina of The Fabric Nook in Granby, Colorado, you heard her talk about participating in the Row by Row Experience. It all began in New York state in 2011 when 20 shops came together to create a traveling experience for those who came by their shops. It has now grown world wide with stores across the United States, Canada, and Europe participating. It's just such a fun way to create a lasting memory of your travels!

This week, I have a wonderful little friend visiting with me. She came last year and as I was taking her back to the airport, I asked what she enjoyed most about her time in Chicago. She replied, "our sew day." So, she's back, a year older, 17 and still wants to sew! In fact, I had planned for us to go downtown last night for a concert and she opted to stay home and sew. Amazing!!!

Before she arrived, I popped into a little quilt shop that is in my neighborhood to pick up their Row by Row kit as I thought it would be a nice memento for her to take home. She was so excited when she saw it. I told her that we could make a pillow if she liked, rather than a quilt panel. She told me that she would have a sofa in her dorm room this year and she would love to have a fun pillow.  

Here's the front of the pillow. Thankfully, the cityscape came pre-cut with the fusible backing already applied. Score!!!

The pinwheels were supposed to be on either side of the cityscape, but since we wanted a pillow, we opted to use them as the back of the pillow.

If you are visiting Chicago this summer and would like a fun little remembrance of your visit, you can find all the information on Second City Quilts HERE.

I was in Colorado the first of July and I made a point of visiting the 2 quilt shops that are in the area.  "On The Go To Baldy" is from Cabin Quilts and Stitches, a fun store in Grand Lake which is just on the border of the Rocky Mountain National Forest. 

The row beautifully depicts all that the area has to offer.

Then I stopped in to see Tina and pick up her design. It really warms my cowgirl heart :) You may remember that we talked in the interview about how the cattle were actually driven through the town of Granby at one time. 

Tina's Row by Row kit comes in this fun heavy paper envelope. It was tied with a cute string, but not unlike a child at Christmas, I couldn't wait to take a look inside!

Of the 3 kits that I've purchased, Tina's is by far the most detailed. Fabulous instructions, a template so you don't get lost in where what goes. And even better, the cowgirl as well as the cows have been laser cut, so they are all ready to go, WOO, HOO!!!

You can find Tina HERE at The Fabric Nook. If by chance you do stop by, be sure to ask for Tina as I know she would love to meet you :)

I'm going back to Second City Quilts to get another kit for myself. It's just so much fun to put these together!! For the first time in quite a while, I REALLY want to put a quilt together.