Happy New Year!

 It has been quite the week weather-wise anyway since I last posted.  Lots of rain and threats of flash flooding.  Just judging by the creeks (yes, there are two of them in about a half mile), man-made lake and two retention ponds near me there is a ton of water.  I don't know that Calhoun County got the washed out roads that other parts of the state did but it is easy to see that the water could easily get out of its banks at any of those locations.  Including what blew in yesterday, or at least I think it was yesterday,  I have counted a total of 9 inches in my gauge since a little over a week.  The picture shows what I got up to one recent morning.

This is across the main road from me.  (basically they cut through a hill to run the road between my back yard and they have a steep drive way up.)  That water does NOT belong there but both roads on either side of the two houses built are higher ground than this spot.  This sort of puts them in a bit of a basin.  The water had to go somewhere.  The other house didn't get so much directly behind it as near as I can tell but it was puddling back between the two houses.  I live on a hill so it was rolling down the lane.  Still, I stayed off the roads as much as I could.

There were even two tornadoes in AL Christmas Day.  An EF-0 near Tuscaloosa and an EF-2 near Birmingham.  Weird, El Nino weather!! Meanwhile, TX, NM etc--blizzards.  My BIL and his dad got held up in Amarillo for a couple of days while trying to get to Phoenix where his dad will snow-bird from IL.  My sister said they had finally arrived on Tuesday but had driven from about 3 in the morning to 3 or 4 pm to get to their Phoenix destination.

It has been quite warm lately too and the grass/weed patch is greening up.  There is a lot of wild onion out right now.  I don't know what that stuff is in my back yard is but it could stand to be mowed if it were not so gooshy under foot.  Oscar's belly is dragging in it!  Well,  he is pretty low to the ground so it wouldn't take much, I grant you.   The camellia is going nuts!!  This is spite of two below freezing nights while I was gone to Illinois.  Mine is not the only one either.  I spotted a gorgeous mixed color bush up the road from here with bright pinks and almost red flowers.  I even spotted a couple of dandelions in bloom in the yard.

 Now we are headed for a cooling, more seasonal temps.  While it has been nice to shut off the furnace, many of use are ready for it to be cooler especially if it means some sunshine with it!

Trying to think what I've been doing this week, LOL.  Went out to lunch at an area Mexican restaurant mid-week.  Binge watched a bunch of holiday movies in my collection for Christmas and have another stack of rom-coms waiting for tonight/tomorrow viewing.  Watched/listened to a bunch of Celtic Thunder material on YouTube. Love them!  Cleaned out and re-organized the kitchen freezer area and then binge cooked for two days so it is now crammed full again.  The outside chest freezer isn't much better.  I need to start eating the contents or quit baking, LOL.

Today, I took the Christmas decorations down and swapped out the quilts and wall hangings, did my last guild newsletter and some other paperwork, ran some errands, chatted with my neighbor and thus far walked Oscar twice.   The Alabama--Michigan State football playoff game is on tonight but I don't have ESPN and can't watch it.   I told Miss Kathryn I would go with her to her son's house to watch the game if Alabama gets into the championship game.

I am supposed to be sewing with my FAB buddies tomorrow.  Norma said for me to pick a pattern and I decided on Gudrun Erla's Square Dance from her book Strip Your Stash.  It's the one on the cover but  THIS LINK will take you some preview pages on Google Books---look for page 11.  These are big blocks finishing at 14 inches if laid straight horizontally but she shows them tilted and finish at 17 inches.  I should be cutting something for a background since I have a jelly roll to use as well as some charms of the same fabric line Block Party---love this stuff!

It is going to take me loving the fabric and/or really wanting to play with a pattern to get me back at the machine.  I don't think I have the right colored background to want to play with this pattern.  Almost looks like a cream color is more needed than the gray or white I have on hand.  HMMMMM.  Rob that Moda Bella Solida Snow I keep having to replace??  Go a hair darker?  Missouri Star shows the Bella Solid Yellow as their choice of go-withs.  I like yellow.  Fig Tree Cream, Orange and Pistachio were other suggestions.   I AM going with the girls to the quilt shop after the "supposed to sew" day so maybe this will be on hold while I work on something else I have started.  I won't be happy with then results if the background is not what I want.

I promised I would sew---what you do on New Years, you are supposed to do all year--even if I have to sew in the kitchen which I do NOT like to do.  Normally we plan on doing a bit of donation quilt sewing.  The "something else I started" thing would cover that--those neglected blue elephant challenge fabric blocks that have not been touched since the November sew-in.  OR I try a block out with some 2.5 inch strips that I have in my stash.  I still have strips left from the Popsicle Stix quilt, brights and a mix of color.  LOL, not many colors NOT in that quilt (below)

The other thing I need to do tomorrow and most days thereafter is go walk.  I really fell off the walking wagon this month. Between that upper respiratory stuff that lasted over two weeks, being gone for 5 days, the crappy weather my resolve to get out and exercise has really fallen off.  Truthfully, almost non-existent other than dog walks in the lane.  I need to get back in my routine and drop those two lbs. of holiday weight gain.  Cannot start going upwards again!  I can and will do better.

And having said that it is about time for Oscar to go on last walk of the day.  Hope you have a good and safe entrance into 2016.  Got to get used to typing and writing that, right?