Still in Lock Down

Some of the masks sent to Cedar Rapids

     Our Stay at Home order has been extended until the end of May.  Trying to be positive but it gets harder every day. Sent 75 mask to my daughter-in-law in Cedar Rapids for their city workers.   Spent the last two days frantically sewing masks to fill orders I got from Facebook.  So tired.  Now it is supposed to rain all day so no opportunity to get in a run even.  Nothing much else to say.

SMF Sewing Studio

Annie and her ruffle skirt

     I haven't been able to teach since mid March but here are some of the things my students finished since September.

Abby and her pillow

     On Mondays there was Annie and her friend Abby, Adalyn and a new student, Timothy.

Adalyn and her colorful pants

Timothy and his pillow

     On Tuesdays I had Kali and her grandmother, Val along with Kerry and Rae.

Kali and her drawstring bag

Val and her pillow

Kerry and her pillow

Rae and her pillowcase

     On Thursdays I had Isy, Libby, Aubrey and Aly.

Isy and her sports shorts

Libby and her cat pillow

Aubrey and her drawstring bag

Aly and her comfy fleece pants

     Man, I really miss their smiling faces.  I am doing some remote teaching with Timothy, he has finished his third project from the series, a book bag.

     

Unusual Easter

     With the stay at home order in place, we were unable to go to Iowa as originally planned to celebrate Easter.  We had breakfast in the dining room which is now my husband's office.  We watched the Easter Vigil service on Saturday night.  After breakfast we went for a walk as it was a nice day.  We went to McDonald Woods and hiked the ravine, one of our favorite walks.

     It was quite muddy in places and standing water in other places.  Glad I had on my waterproof shoes.  Afterwards I did a little yard work and then we visited via Zoom with the family while enjoying some sparkling wine and hummus and chips.  Later John made a yummy marinated pork tenderloin and sweet potatoes for dinner.  We followed it up with a torte I bought from Jewel.  A nice day but certainly not what we had planned.

     Here is a throwback photo from Easter of 1976, I'm the one wearing the hat.  Don't you love the red, white and blue railings for the Bicentennial?

Masks

     I started by making a few masks for my daughter-in-law who works at a hospital.  I used a pattern that my other daughter-in-law sent me.  Then I got requests from my neighbors and now have been sewing masks non-stop.

     One neighbor was able to give me some elastic and I found some elastic cord in my stash.  Of course I have lots of beautiful high quality quilting fabrics in my stash.  The biggest problem is finding something suitable for the guys to wear ;-)

     Going to keep this short so I can go back to sewing masks.  Stay safe everyone.

Coping with Stay at Home

Oatmeal cookies

     We have been in stay at home situation for now a little over two weeks.  I am still busy with trying to figure out how to keep my business running and doing all the regular work that needs to get done at home.

'Sourdough' bread

     I have done some baking.  First I made oatmeal cookies with Craisins and pecans.  I wanted to have a little something sweet before heading to bed.  Then I tried some 'sourdough' bread that used yogurt.  The bread is okay but not really the sourdough taste I was hoping for.  Then I tried a sweet potato bread recipe I found in the Chicago Tribune.  It was labeled as a breakfast bread.  We have been enjoying it for breakfast.  I might try adding walnuts and/or chocolate chips to the next loaf.

Sweet potato bread

     We have been practicing the whole social distancing thing.  On Saturday we had a Zoom chat with the family with the grandkids.  It was pretty funny.  Later that evening we did just the adults.  It was nice to talk and see everyone.  We have picked up a few food orders and done some grocery shopping and a run to the drugstore.  We have been trying to keep up with our training but so far our half marathon at the end of April has been cancelled and not sure about Nationals Duathlon the end of May.

     No need to be alarmed by this photo.  They were doing a prairie burn across the lake from us, mostly burning the cattails.  They were keeping their social distancing while still helping to improve the ecosystem of our community.