geocaching....

tractor joe says to me: "want to go to a tractor action?"

me: "why would I want to go?"

him: "because there is an Oliver there, and we could go geocaching"

me: "okay, let's go!"

We went and watched this baby go for $3,800.00. That was that.

We, of course, did not buy it. So much for tractor joe's dream of...

"maybe it will go for $500.00"

Off we went in search of caches. It wasn't a very nice day as far as the weather went.

It was cold and windy. I wore my snow pants and boots and big old coat. For a small town there were a lot of caches.....many were micros, those teeny tiny ones.

Others were "small"....hidden in a tree that hung over the water. 

I found it, so I had to replace the cache. Back up the trunk of the tree.

Then reach over and put it back in the hiding spot.

Success....and I didn't fall into the water!

Here the cache was hanging under a bridge. It was a cute little thing.....

We were able to find 9 of them in a few hours. Some were easy, some were hard, and some were so hard we left without finding it.....OR, it was missing. 

As we were driving home, we went through Sac City. 

Out of the corner of my eye I saw something so unbelievable.

We had to turn around and go back to get a closer look!

Actually, tractor joe would have kept on driving, but I said,

 we really need a picture, you just don't see this everyday.

There in a little shed, right on main street, 

was....

The WORLD'S biggest......

POPCORN BALL!

a quick story here

You just never know what treasures you will find when you go out geocaching!

paper stuff and the geocaching quilt.....

Our preschool teacher had gallstones removed earlier this week. All that paper that was spray painted last week, turned into get well cards this week.  

They used crayons and stickers to decorate them. The envelopes were old papers that they had colored or painted on...left over stuff sitting around....waiting for new life as an envelope.

The three year olds used dot paint and then decorated with some foam shapes glued on. Sometimes it was lots and lots of glue.

When I was snapping pictures of the cards, a few of the boys came over. They wanted their pictures taken with their cards. Okay, hold it up!

We even put the braille writer into action.....

It is supposed to say "I love apples"... I was typing rather quickly, hopefully I hit all the right letters.

 "get well soon" is on the inside.

My sisters and I have decided we are going to go back to Okoboji. We have camped there for 26 years or so. But last year, we didn't. We thought we could live without it.

We were wrong. 

We missed it more than we thought we would.

To celebrate our going camping again, I made a bunch of postcards & sent them off.

I had left over cut up pieces when I was done with them.

I put them in my altered book.

And last but not least....

the geocaching quilt!

Now it needs to be quilted. It will be sent away for that. 

I am so excited.

it is getting closer.....

Yesterday I finished all the words for my geocaching quilt. I snapped a picture of what I had.

Then I moved it all..... I laid a quilt out on the bed and put the pieces on that.

That way, when I am done sewing for the day, I can just roll up the quilt and everything stays put. The next time I sew, I just unroll it and everything is ready to go.

But this morning a cat was sleeping on the bed. I didn't have the heart to disturb her...so I partially unrolled the quilt. Pearl slept through all my sewing this morning.

She has her face all covered. 

The sewing went faster than I thought it would. This morning I took another picture of all the rows coming together. As I finished a row it went back out to the living room.

I see the bottom row keeps changing...it doesn't look exactly like this, but close enough. All the rows are done. I used every tree block I won in the block lotto!!  I'll put some black in between the rows to make the quilt longer....and some kind of spacing to make all the rows, the same width. I'll save that for another day.....to many other things I need to do right now.

preschool and no school.....

 I brought the spray paints to school yesterday. I wasn't sure how it would work...but had to try. I told them that this wasn't "preschool paint", it was the REAL thing and they had to be careful. In spite of that warning, I ended up getting sprayed in the face. I just cleaned the last of the green drops off my glasses.
Their little hands had trouble getting it to spray. Many techniques were attempted...... They tried using the first finger, the thumb and the "push with your whole hand" to make the paint come out technique.

 Then it was discovered that if they put the bottle right on the table and then pushed down the sprayer, all kinds of paint sprayed out. Well, to help hit the paper we took one of the drying racks and set it against a chair, right up on the table. They loved the dripping paint look. We have plans for our painted paper, but not until next week. We don't have school for the rest of the week.

So I am home today. Yesterday I saw this recipe....click right here ....there is a prune cake recipe..... I thought I had all the ingredients and I love prunes.
Well..... I had to improvise, which is probably why baking isn't my thing.

There weren't as many prunes as I thought, and I was down to one egg.

okay...make half a recipe. The egg was extra large so I figured it counted

for 1 1/2 eggs.

I used instant coffee, only I didn't read the recipe and added more

than it said.

There was no buttermilk, so I soured some milk with vinegar.

Then I could only find ONE of my beaters! Good gravy, I used the one

I could find.

The batter tasted pretty good before I put it in the oven.

It turned out pretty darn good, in spite of it's baker. The chocolate frosting is so good on it. Thank you Linda!

One more link.....In preschool (and here at home) we are watching a pair of eagles in Decorah, Iowa. There is a camera on them 24 hours a day. There are 3 eggs in the nest. It is really an interesting thing to see....we check in on the eagles through out the day to see how things are going....we are looking forward to seeing baby eagles.

click here to see the eagle nest 

a little sewing (very little) and more paint.....

A blogger named Brenda is collecting B's for her big birthday. When I saw she was in Manitoba, I had to try getting a maple leaf in the B. This was made with fabric that was laying around, scraps. I made the leaf first, then added more B and red around it. The leaf is about 3 inches, I don't know how big this block is over all, though.  I haven't measured it.

I made my own spray paint. There are several recipes for this on youtube. 

The recipe:

One spray bottle, I found these in Hobby Lobby for 99cents.

Fill with warm water about 2/3 full.

Add a dollop of mod podge.

Add a couple dollops of acrylic paint.

If you want it to shimmer add some Liquitex iridescent medium.

(different videos talked about adding some pearl ex stuff, I don't have any and I'm not even sure what it is)

Then...shake shake shake.

I sprayed it on a few coffee filters.

I cut pedals and leaves from the filters. They were applied to an envelope with mod podge.

It got some ink stamped on it too. The leaf and swirly are bought. The dotted circles are homemade, along with the checker board. 

They are made from foam, using my Sizzix die cutter. I used a hole punch to make all the dots and arranged them in a circle. The flowers are made from the center of the O.

I mounted them on some stiff plastic stuff.

and last but not least....the "you are" card that will go into the envelope. It is for my aunt who will be having surgery on Monday. I think it is all dry enough now. Maybe I will add some stamping stuff to finish it. I want it in the mail tomorrow.

loving the mail......

My sister, Jane, made me a geocaching card. I love love love it. She hasn't mailed it yet....but she wanted to me to see it RIGHT AWAY when she finished it. The anticipation is exciting. I can't wait for it to get here. 

Of course, I am no better......

I made her a homemade envelope....and I haven't mailed it yet. I couldn't stand it though, I was so excited.... I sent her a picture so she knows what to be on the look out for.

This is before it was glued into a real envelope and goodies tossed in.

Anticipation! What is inside???

Then there is the mail that has arrived for real....

I won block lotto again. I am almost embarrassed by this. I love the heart block that we made in February, I am so happy and excited to be getting these in the mail. A lot have already arrived......

so much fun in the mail.

disappearing 4-patch.....

This month, at good ol' block lotto we are making disappearing 4-patches. They are easy, fun and fast. I didn't take any pictures of the cutting, so I can't show you how this block works. But I can send you here to see how it goes together.

Then...

I had a dentist appointment last week, so I stopped in the quilt shop. I left with 2 charm packs of Java.

After making the D4P's in red, I wanted to make more......

The red lotto blocks are cut 1 inch from the center seams. For mine I cut 1 1/4 inch from the seam. I started matching up the java fabric with fabric I had on hand and got this far. (that's why I bought two packs, so I would have pairs)

This morning I cut up the four patches I had made earlier and sewed them back together. I'm liking it so far.

I ended up getting some more width of the lights in java. I am pretty sure this isn't enough for all the charms I have yet. This will get used up and then I'll see where I am. Can't say how many blocks I will end up with......

I may reject some of the fabrics. This one says "icky" to me....then again, it is a scrappy sort of quilt and it might get lost in the quilt. We'll see.

Other things....after making Valentines and having fun with it....I made some gift tags. I sent these in a surprise package to Karen ......she is always making baby quilts as gifts, so I thought she might like them.

 She is also making a pink and purple scrap quilt. She isn't a purple person, but I had a gone through my purple period and have a bunch with no real destination. These purples lost chunks of themselves today, I can help her out and give her some.
When I finished, the pile didn't look very big. She'll have a start anyway. There is always more here to use. Purple is hard to photograph.

Two more quick tags. Neither Zoe(y) has a baby quilt yet......

............but they do have gift tags ready to go.