~ Color Combo: Sea Shore ~

Prior to moving to my home here ... I was a white wall only kind of gal.  But when I encountered some strange colors from the previous homeowners that I wanted to change, I became a blue wall kind of gal.

The one big exception was the Master Bedroom.  It's walls were already painted in a stunning neutral ... that pretty much matched the carpet.  I soon saw how much I loved how white and blue stood out against it.

I love this room ... and how this sandy, ocean, shell color scheme comes together.

Oddly enough, I made my "Speaking with the Stars" quilt not even thinking of this room and then later found that the colors and the size were a perfect fit.

I already had a blue slipcovered chair with a precious and sentimental throw (thank you Mom!) that perfectly matched the carpet.

It's taken me a year and a half to get the combinations just right ...

And to find the perfect sheets.

(Thank you Target!)

I've carried over my scheme to the bathroom with it's blue walls and sandy colored tile.

How about you?

What's your favorite color combo?

~ Bucket List ~

Finally!

I finished this.

The problem with trying to finish this summer, beachy quilt was that ...

I was too busy enjoying summer ... and going to the beach.

You can find the pattern on my Etsy Shop.

I promise it won't take you as long as it did me.

Orange you glad I picked this binding?

~ Pick a Binding, any Binding ~

I am just about finished with the machine quilting on my Bucket List quilt.

I stitched waves on the sea fabric.

And swirls on the sand fabric.

I put swirls on the buckets that hold sand, and waves on the buckets that hold water.
I don't know why I insist on being so literal, but let's face it, I'm too old at this point to change.

I have a plan in my head to quilt on the pinwheel/solid border, but I couldn't decide which of the thread colors to use.  Then it occured to me to use the same color of whatever fabric I picked for the binding.
Except ... I can't seem to make that decision, either.

So I am asking you.  You tell me which of the above three fabrics (green, orange, pink) I should use for the binding and hence ... the color of the thread to machine quilt the border. 
I ruled out the yellow, the sea fabric and the sand fabric because I don't have enough of either of those.
I also have enough of the pink stripe ... so you can add that to the mix.
So hurry and vote already since I have dragged my feet far too long on this quilt as it is.  I pretty much blame that on summer.

Pink or Green or Orange?

~ What I did on my Summer Vacation ~

My arrival in the Big Apple.
I was here to visit my one and only son, Sonny Boy, and his wife Mrs. Boy.
It was my third trip here.
If you have been here you know that every new trip here ... is new.

On our first morning, SB and I took a stroll around Brooklyn, which is absolutely oozing with charm.
You can see that charm spilling over this window box.

On the ferry on our way to see the Big Statue.

One World Trade. On the rise.

Sailboats.  Sigh.

Seeing her from the boat.

And through the trees ... and the chain link fence.

The next day Mrs. Boy and I went down to the memorial at Ground Zero.
It was stunning and heartbreaking all at once.

I did my best to capture the sparkle of these falls.  Amazing.

SB (an architect) explained that the outer perimeter of the fountain is the footprint of the building. The inner opening is a footprint of the core of the building, the elevator tower.
You might already know that.

The next day was a 'trip withing a trip' to see the landscape of Connecticut and a visit to Yale.
I'm pretty certain I felt smarter there.

They don't call it the Ivy League for nothing.

The architecture was stunning.

The foliage, amazing.

The water droplets on the lily pads ... freakishly large.

Thanks you SB for being my bestest boy.
Thanks Mrs. Boy for taking a precious day off to hang with your MIL. Who does that??

And thank you NYC for being so Grand.

~ The Eastern Sea ~

I've been gone.  On vacation.
Although, let me make one thing perfectly clear: I was not sitting around ... vacating.
I was walking miles of pavement and absorbing years of history and laughing heartily.
I was with my son and his wife.
They live in Brooklyn, NY.

There are weeks worth of pictures from our forays into the Big City.  Today I am just concentrating on the day we drove up to Connecticut, visited Yale and ended up on this little stretch of beach on The Sound.
I'm a little bruised from pinching myself.  Yes ... this bucolic beauty is very real indeed.

 For starters there was this very charming lighthouse.
I love my SoCal beaches ... but I am not seeing lighthouses on my walks there.

The water was very warm and lovely.  The sand was darker than I am used to.

The sun as you can see ... is setting over the water.
This is because we were situated east of the Long Island Sound.
I foolishly asked, "Why is the sun setting in the West?" as a way to express how odd that was.
My son is still laughing.
At me.  Not with me.

The sunset was incredible.

As were the lobster rolls.

We were so busy doing stuff for three days that I never bought any souveniers.
Not even a foam Statue of Liberty headband.

Before we left the beach, I picked up these beauties to add to my collection of shells.
These, combined with umpteen wonderful memories are fine souveniers indeed.

What's your vote: East Coast Beach or West Coast Beach??  

~ Buckets O' Fun ~

Not to seem redundant ... or overly cocky ... but I went to the beach again this weekend.
This time with small children and their sand pails.
I'm rather fond of these children (grandkids #2 and #4).
I'm also enamored of their pails.

Here's the Sweet Pea doing what she did for ... um ... about 4 straight hours.
She was filling the pails (which had already been filled with salty water) with sand until the water absorbed all the sand.
Then she would cry, as if on the 27th try she was still indignant that the water was gone.
My job was to dump the sand and fill the pail once again with water.
I was very good at my job.

Here is Mr. T using his bucket as a shield.
He made it quite clear that he was not putting up with the papparazzi yesterday.
He was, however, putting up his bucket of sand for all to see.

When he wasn't looking, I snapped this photo of him admiring a paddle-boarder.
While I was admiring him.

Here's a view (from where I sit at my sewing machine) of my design wall (and project basket) a couple of weeks ago before I started the whole pinwheel business. My initial sand pail inspiration was from a beach trip a couple of months ago.  I remember thinking ... how many of those came from the Target Dollar Bin? I considered naming this one "Ode to the Target Dollar Bin".

On further reflection, I have decided to name it ...

Bucket List.