I’ve had plenty of time the last few weeks to put my creative juices to good use.   A couple of weeks ago I got these.

That necklace was a Mother’s Day gift from my daughter.  You can’t see them very well, but my grandchildren’s names are all engraved on it.  I love it.  But what I was really trying to show was the paint by number picture.  I ordered two of them in March and just received them recently. The colored picture is what I will be painting.

I also got this one which is a picture of a flower in a small vase on a table. Doesn’t look much like that right now, does it?  I love these because you don’t have to mix colors. A few years ago I bought a paint by number at Hobby Lobby and you had to mix some of the paints to get the color you needed.  I wasn’t very good at it and gave up half way through. Now that I’m painting these pictures, I think I will go back and see if I can finish that one if the paints haven’t dried up!

Anyway, I ordered yet another paint by number from another company and they wrote me that they were weeks behind because of the high volume of orders they had received. Must be a lot of bored people out there wanting something to occupy their time.  I find painting is very relaxing.  I wish I had taken some art classes in high school and college because I think I would have loved painting pictures of my own making.  I know I love painting in general as I have painted every room in our house several times since we’ve lived here.  Something about taking a brush with paint on it and transforming a room or a canvas  just makes me happy.

I’m hoping to have this one done in a week or so and then David is going to build a frame and we’ll stretch the canvas onto it. Saw them do that last night on the show Home Town. One of my favorite fixer upper shows.   David and I took a road trip to Laurel, Mississippi where the show takes place and where the hosts’ have a little store downtown.   Very nice little southern town with beautiful houses and big oak trees down the streets.  I can see why people want to move there.

Do you notice how I get off subject pretty quickly? That’s how my mind works. It meanders through one thought to another thought until I forget what the first thought was!   I was talking about painting, wasn’t I?   When I was a girl I would get color by number picture sets for Christmas and used color pencils to color the pictures. I absolutely loved doing  it. I wish I still had some of those pictures. They sell them on E-bay now and people decorate with them.

But painting is not all I’ve been doing.  I am working on six quilts. Six!  I have a plan, but I can’t write it here because nosy people might know what I’m writing about.  I found some wonderful fabrics in aboriginal prints that I am using in a couple of the quilts.  It’s really amazing fabric.   Sadly, my stamina isn’t what it use to be and it’s taking me a lot longer to get sewing done than it use to.   I have a deadline when I want these quilts completed, so I’m going to have to get it in gear and work harder.   Maybe I’ll show you a corner of a quilt sometime.

And of course, there is always socks.  I could knit all day I love it so much, but it would not be very good for me to sit so long so I get up and do other things like feed and water the chickens, chicks and dogs.  That’s my life. Feeding and watering birds, both wild and domestic and the dogs.  They can’t do it themselves and I’m the only one here most of the day, so somebody(me) has to do it.  Yesterday I accidentally left the door open on the young chick’s pen and two of them got out. Luckily the pen was in the cabin so all I had to do was shut the cabin door and catch the little rascals and all was well. The chicks are getting almost big enough to join the big girls.   Next week we will put their pen inside the coop so they all can get acquainted.  I always worry how the older chickens will take to the younger ones. Once our daughter’s family was going somewhere and needed chicken sitters while they were gone so they brought their flock over to put in with mine.  Well, the rumble began as soon as her chickens saw mine. Her chickens were thugs!  Bullies!  I had to keep them all separated or someone would have gotten hurt. Not going to try that again. Chickens are very territorial.

But, back to knitting.

I got this lovely yarn in the mail.

And this one. This is called Monopoly because it has the colors of the Monopoly game.  This designer always sends a little charm with each hank of yarn she sends to her customers.

Of course, Monopoly had a little green house.

The pink yarn included this pink and white sucker charm. I have several charms from this lady and I bought a charm bracelet the other day and am going to put all the charms on it to remind me of all the stockings I’ve knitted from this one business.

I’ve also been going through my yarn and finding like colors and making patchwork stockings. I knit until one color runs out and join yarn and keep knitting. I’m loving these Christmas colors socks.

The flowers in my garden change almost weekly. The peonies were so beautiful this year, but just did not last long enough.

The last paint by number I ordered is actually a picture of peonies in a vase somewhat like this picture of my peonies. So I can have peonies all year through if I get the painting done.

We practiced social distancing long enough and our grandchildren were ready to get out and the came down to see us.  It’s so nice having grown grandchildren you can carry on a conversation with. They are such fun to have around.

I just love these kids so much and could not be any prouder of them than I am already.

The one on the left is the youngest! I told his brother that one day he’d be taller than him and I was right.  Two are in college and the youngest will be a freshman.  I can’t believe how fast these children grew. Seems like just the other day I was holding them on my lap and reading them stories.

I baked banana bread twice. It is so good with a glass of cold milk or a cup of coffee.

Well, hope you are getting out and about. We’ve eaten out a few times at restaurants that are serving.  Have you noticed most of them expect you to have a cellphone and place your order with the phone? David and I are old school and don’t carry our phone with us every place we go. We went to one restaurant where there was a wait and we said we didn’t mind waiting and the young man told us they would call us on our phone and David told him we didn’t have a phone with us and would you believe, the young man told him we could go to another restaurant!  Banned for not having a cellphone with us?  Needless to say, I wrote the company and told them what I thought of their policy. We have had no trouble at any of the other restaurants. They gladly have someone tell us our table is ready.  Oh, well. You win some, you lose some.

June is here. Can July be far behind?  Summer is going fast!  Bye.