So long Irene....

 What a day! Now the storm is over and the sky is blue. It was a very long day. No serious damage but still damage. Some of the trees that graced the edge of the lake are now in the lake and a huge tree fell and split about 10 feet from the cabin. We had undecorated the gardens and I am glad we did or they would have been decorated with many branches. The porch on the cabin got wet from around the windows as the rain and wind roared. Luckily we did not lose power.

What amazed me was the lack of coverage for our area. Maine was barely mentioned and even the stations in Portland failed to mention that the lakes region was being slammed. We found it difficult to get information. 

I hope those of you in Irene's path fared well. And thank you to all of you who sent emails and comments here and on Facebook. I shall try for a more creative post later this week.

Now the cleanup will begin.

Pink around the house....

I am an Etsy fan. As I have worked on my hexagon quilt, I have used Etsy for fabric. During one of my shopping expeditions (when not playing with Pinterest or Angry Birds....), I came across TygerLily. What caught my eye was the fabric she used to make her desk set. This French Journal fabric is one that I am using in my quilt and an absolute favorite. Now I will have desk accessories to match the quilt that will hang in the studio when I get back to Florida.

While we wait for the hurricane I cleaned out the garden a bit. 

The marigolds and zinnias have been beautiful.

I played a bit with Picnik.

I am joining Beverly at How Sweet the Sound for another Pink Saturday. Be sure to stop in and see all the other Pinks.

And if you are in the path of this hurricane, please be safe.

Thank you Mario Batali

The eggplants at the market spoke to me from their basket. Well, not really.....We decided to have eggplant parm for dinner in an attempt to have a "meatless" meal. This concept is quite foreign to us but really something we need to address. So I bought two lovely eggplants and brought them back to the cabin. Now normally I would do the flour, egg and bread crumb routine. And then I would almost fry them. I googled and found this recipe from Mario. You can see his recipe here. I used this as a starting point and like everything else, I changed it a bit as I did not make the sauce. I used a jar of his sauce which I happened to have in the pantry.

I baked the slices of eggplant at 450 degrees after lightly oiling the sheet pan. They were ready in about 15 minutes.

Then I began the layering.

They baked.

They were wonderful!

Happy summer dinner.

Noticing changes....

The nights are cooler on the lake and when I got up very early this morning I noticed the mist on the lake. This is a sure sign that summer will soon be over. Time seems to move very quickly as I get older. We took our weekly trip to North Conway for groceries and then a stop at Sherman Farms for corn and a few other items. The farm grows flowers as well and it was a good day to photograph some of them. The sunflowers seemed to be dancing. So I took a gazillion pictures.

They were in various stages of blooming.

I also took pictures of the zinnias. This zinnia is called Candy Cane and I fell in love with them. I will try to find them for my little garden.

I have had a little time off but now I am back. I accomplished some of what I had hoped to do but not as much as I would have liked. There is just so much to get done - of course, I am probably trying to do too much.

Have a great week. Jack is making his sauce today and I am working on my quilt. Should be a lovely day!

Thank you Mr. Holden.....

There are certain teachers that I remember. Some I remember fondly because I was good in their subject and others not so fondly because I wasn't. I am sure that Mr. Holden was a fine gentleman but I struggled with some of his math classes. In fact, if I had to do a word problem that started out with "two trains leave Chicago an hour apart at such and such a speed...... I would weep." I now know the answer. It doesn't matter what time they leave or at what speed they are going - they will both be LATE! So, after I struggled with algebra, we went on to two years of geometry. Again, I struggled. But something must have sunk in....I make quilts. I am working on one made up of hexagons. These hexagons come together and make stars. I sit here with graph paper, a protractor and a compass (and an eraser) and make templates for my quilt. So, thank you Mr. Holden.

Not all the pieces are sewn together yet and not all of those that are fit perfectly! Piecing this type of quilt by machine is challenging! I have been really inspired by the quilters that are participating in this QAL (quilt a long). The fabrics I have seen are wonderful.

 

The next two weeks are going to be quite busy so I am taking a little break. I am still having issues with this modem in the cabin and I need to resolve that. I need to do some blog redecorating and make relish! And of course, there is this quilt!

See you soon! I will do some visiting and catching up!

We have some winnahs.....

Or you could say winners if you are not from Maine!

The prizes

The winners

Cass at That Old House

Bonnie at From a Writer's Kitchen

Sherry at Country Wings in Pheonix

Thank you all for being such wonderful followers and leaving such lovely comments. If you will email your addresses, I will ship things off!

Candied Pink Hexagons

I have been working on my hexalong quilt (see my sidebar). It is quite addictive. I was wondering what to share for Pink Saturday and looked down on the floor which I am using for my design wall and had an ah-ha moment. There is a lot of pink in this quilt. SewFresh Fabrics on Etsy has been a life saver and Lynne of Lily's Quilts has helped with some fabric identification.

I also ordered from the Fat Quarter Shop. I didn't bring any fabric with me this summer except the Dr. Seuss fabric for my grandson's quilt. Then I saw this quilt and that was the end of the knitting....

I am joining Beverly at How Sweet the Sound for Pink Saturday. Stop by and see the other PINKS!

I am waiting for one "giveaway" to arrive. Hopefully the drawing will be on Monday. I apologize for the delay!

Little Bit of Everything and a drawing for the GIVEAWAY

The summer is just moving along. It seems we go from weekend to weekend. We have plans now right up to the middle of September. The reservations have been made to go back to Florida. Can't believe where the time goes.

My youngest son was here with my grandchildren on Sunday. I gave them the quilts I had made and we had a lakeside photoshoot. 

They swam in the lake and then had lunch. We 

did a little shopping on Amazon (I have trained them well LOL).

I am organizing the drawing which will happen this weekend. Entry closed on Monday at noon. Teapot and paper are at hand. So stay tuned - you could be a winner.