Turtle Trax Too

While I was in California I decided to work on my embroidery. It was either keep my hands busy or hurt a few people. WH thought I should keep my hands busy. He wasn't too keen on bailing me out from N.D. Believe it or not I did ALL these in the time I was there. I was really diligent at keeping my hands busy. The bad thing though is that I had really wanted these. Until I did them. The circumstances that I made them under just ruined them for me. I don't even want to look at them now. Sigh. I have a queen size quilt top that I have never been able to finish because while I was making it a dear friend passed away. So I guess I should be happy I didn't take a match to these. Wasn't sure what I was going to do with them until a friend fell in love with them. She has been such a wonderful support for me so I think I will put them into a quilt for her. I can do that. I just don't want to see them again afterwards!

Does anyone have a foolproof (fool meaning me) recipe? I got so used to having them on the cruise ship and have been having horrible withdrawls! I found a couple online recipes but thought I would ask those I could trust first. :).........So can you help a girl out?

That would be me! I TOTALLY forgot a very very important anniversary for our family. Yesterday was the anniversary of Little A's adoption! The Story of Little A You were one of the best decisions we ever mad Little A. You make our family whole.

Do you remember the Bargello graduation quilt I starter over a year ago? Well ITS DONE!!!! I just got sick of seeing it in my sewing room. The quilting I did on it was a feather meander. Very basic for a boy but fancy enough for a bargello. I wish I had a picture of that part but for some reason it corrupted on my camera. The quilt is in its new home so I would have to have them take another picture for me. Either way I was very very happy with how it turned out. The color choice was his ( recipient) and I wasnt to sure about them. Odd in my book. Was I ever wrong though. I LOVE how it turned out and best of all he absolutely loves it. Thats all that is important. :) Now to get my house back in shape after the cruise and my tail back in gear quilting!

So much has happened in the last month and a half...It was pretty awful for awhile and I wasnt sure of even how to take the next breath....I was a daddy's girl big time. I guess I always will be. Mom and I have gotten pretty close though. We had to do some painful things together. After dad passed away the family and I stayed for a little bit with mom. Helped her with some things she didnt need to do by herself. It was tough going home. Life has to go on though and my life is a busy one. so home we went. First on the agenda after we got back was the rival game between Packers and Vikings. I had this little bet going with a buddy that one of us had to wear the winners hat.Hmmmm I guess you know who won. Is this guy tall or what! Heheheh Humble too. The next thing happening was a cruise WH and I had booked a few months back.Two other couples joined us. I needed it so badly. The sleep, the laughter (my stomach STILL hurts from laughing), the sun, and the time with just WH. I will have...

why my text to my blog messed up like that. the text is all words but it transposed to symbols somewhere along the way. i am still in sacramento.my father passed away on sunday. this is definitely the roughest thing i have ever done. i am being strong for mom though.funeral is this sat. and then our "new" normal starts. i just miss my dad. i am so grateful though that i did get here in time to say goodbye.

??3??????? d????0 ????n?<L ??d ]v??u9H?.?E ?[? ?A?? $.??n ( j??sP; "??.???r?\

?o?< J???y /??e2(| ??.P3 "?? xx>/?A?{8 z?A??? ??@I? $.?? ??~F??i: ? ???3(?f???2(,????r????]?$H]??A??? ???s??^???i: $??AIP? ?????????

Got that phone call I didn't want to get. On my way back to california.

To get fit. I came home from California with renewed zeal to take better care of myself. To eat healthier and start exercising. After a quick trip to the doctors here that was also impressed upon me by her. SO I found a treadmill and bought some fitness d.v.d.s. First off the treadmill has become my best friend. 30 minutes of uninterrupted walking time. Just as with my gardening the kids and hubby see that thing going and quickly disappear.Do they think I am going to make them walk too? This wasnt enough though. Oh no. When I decide to do something I go whole hog. So I give the walking a week and think yes its time to add something else into the mix. Lets do one of the D.V.D.s. I grab Jillian Michaels 30 day shred and pop that puppy in. Only 20 min and according to the wrapper in 30 days I will be a whole new me! I would like to know WHY they do not warn you ahead of time with a label that clearly states she will try to kill you? I am now rubbing myself down with Ben gay and praying th...

If you are sensitive to hunting pictures go no further! I am VERY proud of WH. First deer ever by bow! The best part is right in the back yard. We have 3 more tags. Skater Boy (who soon morfs into boarder boy) has his bow and rifle license and the WH has a rifle license still. We had the back strap for dinner. YUM yum yum. We really will put this meat to good use. WH also got his first pheasant in our yard. Right in our back yard! It promptly went into the pot for pheasant white bean chili. Oh boy good stuff!

Take to a Viking/Packers game? A cheese football of course!!!! Let me tell you the Vikings fans wouldn't even touch it until we had taken the first bites. Lol . Then they saw how good it was and couldn't stay away. Needless to say when I get to host the next rivalry game there WILL be another Packers cheese football. Want the recipe ? Easy peasy..... 2-4 Cups Sharp coarsely grated sharp cheddar cheese. (start out withe 2 cups the add more as you see it needs it. I made 3 batches and it was a different amount each time) 1 PKG softened Cream Cheese (very very soft. I put it in the micro to soften it.) 1 Can Jalapenos ( however hot you want it) 3/4 tsp Garlic 1/2 tsp Cumin Liquid Smoke ( I think I did about 8 drops but will try more next time. So this is to taste) Crust is Pumpernickle bread and melted butter. Mix everything But the sharp cheddar in your mixer. Add in the two cups mixing by hand. Slowly add more until you get a good consistency that will be easy to pour into a...

My laptop decided to quit last week. Great timing huh. So I went in to purchase a new one and walked out with a Mac. VERY good salesman let me tell you. Now however I am in way over my head and am having a difficult time adjusting! I have a great post for y'all tho. A recipie I came up with for the Packers/MN game for a a cheese football! Yay Packers! Darn good thing they won too.I would of lost a very serious bet and would be wearing Vikings Horns the next game! Whew. Now my buddy gets to wear my cheesehead.Hahahahah.

Just got home from Cali....I am exhausted. Two solid weeks of hospital,rehab,hospital,rehab,hospital. The rehab center was more of a rest home. Dont know how to explain it. But it was very sad. Dad is holding his own right now. He is back in the Hospital but who knows for how long. All I can say is they belong to a HMO, Kaiser and I have nothing nice to say about it. In a nut shell they added his age and health condition together and came up with not worth saving. They literally discharged him twice before he was ready (with us filing complaints and fighting for him to stay) and both times he had more strokes. Length of time they kept him the first two times 4 days. Thats 2 days per stay. I went head to head quite a few times with doctors and filed many complaints. All that did was assure that he got worse care. So for now I am regrouping while he battles pnumonia and yet another stroke. I needed to come and get love and hugs from my kids and WH. I will wait for the phone call to go ba...

Thats what I am calling this. I will explain at the end but right now I want to show you the candy boquets I made. Ever wanted to make one? Super easy..... Buy a TON of different kinds of candy.As it turns out this is pretty easy to do right now. Just a side point. Its more economical to make more then one. You want to use a variety of candy and you will be left with a bunch if you dont. You will need a vase/planter or something for your boquet. You will also need styrofoam inserts,floral tape, and those green stick thingys with the wire on the end that they also sell in the floral department. Yeah I know not really technical. Use the wire to attach the candy to the stick. Yeah those are my jammies. Then use the floral tape to cover the wire.It also helps hold the candy on. Next and last arragne in your holder! All you have left is to gift them to a friend. So I am off tomorrow to California. My dad had a couple strokes on Friday and isnt doing very well. I am not sure how long I ...

Before I even go any further yall have to check out these plates!! I found this magazine that I totally love. Southern woman or something like that. These plates were on the first page! I cant seem to find them in a store but I will. Oh yes I will! The past few days have just been filled with randomness. I have strayed from making my lists. It shows belive me. I get to the end of the day and really havent accomplished anything. Just a bunch of littleness. I have a friend who is a list maker extroardinare. She color codes and makes them all pretty. At the top she writes one thing she doesnt want to do the most. She calls that eating her frog. Seriously. Eating her frog......... She says that if she eats her frog right away then the other things fall into place. So today I decided to eat my frog. Right away I cleaned my bathroom and bedroom. I did NOT want to so this. WOW! After that I finished a customer quilt,worked on two WIPs, and loaded the mamoth bargello onto Gracie. I am almost ...

I wanted to sew today. BUT life had other plans for me. Good friends of ours here are farmers. They grow different things each year but this year its Flax and Wheat...I have had quite an education on farming since we have moved here and I have a HUGE appreciation that I did not have before. This year has been a real bad year for the farmers. It has rained a LOT at night. While us homeowners have thought we were blessed this is not the case for our growers. The wheat and flax they need to harvest is not dried out enough by morning. These poor farmers are behind this year by atleast two weeks. I suppose it does not affect all the farmers the same as they grow different things but for the people I know they are hurting. I woke up this morning ready to sew sew sew. Then I looked out the window and saw the rain. I knew that meant another day at home and another day behind. So knowing that it was not possible for me to go out and pick flax by hand I decided to bake something for my friend. H...

back into the sewing studio involved a little more shopping then sewing! I needed just a couple things for the project I was starting. One trip the the local QS then JoAnnes for supplies and I walked away with patterns! I justified these at the time because I always NEED a new apron. I also need a couple new bags for our cruise....... Yeah I may have forgotten to metion the cruise..On one of my little meltdowns last month I booked us for a cruise. Southern Carribean. It was a MAJOR meltdown. I get dangerous during those. Thankfully WH is extremely easy going. I kinda didnt tell him until afterit was booked....Hehehe Ooops! Well of course I saw the fancy schmancy new materials in for the holidays. Then that resulted in a trip back to the pattern table. Sigh. I know you see where this is going. I am spinning out of control and just couldnt help myself.....I love the red one.Ü Bel went along for the ride. She was no help what so ever. In fact she all but took my credit card out of my p...

I HAVE to share this website with you! Mila's Daydreams This made me smile. I really think this is going to be my happy website!

The craftiness going on for this very important YAY!!!! Bell could not contain her excitement Ü.... Ok now back to work......

I have taken on two new projects. When I made my Dear Jane it became apparant that Skater boy was the most interested in it out of all my kids. He in fact is the one that came up with the name "I Love You Turtles", after a game we would play together. So I decided that when he marries it will be his. Hmmm what do you do for your other children. Well I found the perfect quilt to start for Little A. The Farmers Wife. It is such an interesting read. What a great concept this lady had for designing a quilt. I havent started it yet but the book is in and I am getting ready too! I also ran across this in TN. I SWORE and I mean SWORE that I would never ever in a million years do another wedding ring. The first one I did was painful. I have jokingly told others it was worse then giving birth. I do still stick by that BUT......... I for some odd reason could not pass this up! Yes I may have lost my mind. That is still not clear. Today was the first day in two months that I spent all...

So I havent really made a secret that this has been a rough summer on our family. I kind of just crawled into a cave and have been having a hard time coming out of it. I have been dwelling on all of it and thinking poor poor me. Its easy to dwell isnt it.... Well I had a real wake up call. I have talked before about my girlfriends back in Alaska. My Martini girls. When we moved two of the 4 also moved. One here as our hubby's work together and one to TN, to join her parents. We left one behind..Leaving her and My Jody Bob was sooooo hard! These girls are my sisters. They have helped me through so much. M (I wont use her full name here) who moved to TN with her family is very very special to me. She was our little Martha Stewart. A sweetheart through and through. 2 weeks ago her baby brother died unexpectedly and through everyone for a tail spin. They were so close.She, her hubby,kids, and her parents are just so heartbroken. WH and I didnt even have to think.Along with my other Mar...