Turtle Trax Too

Back A##wards......

2012-01-26T20:15:00.000-08:00

Thats how my dad said I went about things...Lol...He didnt mean it in a bad way. Just that I sometimes do things without thinking first. Then I am sitting in the middle of a big mess and wonder how it happened! Hahah....More on that later...

I received a box this week. My favorite customer from AK tells me she is sending me a quilt....Hmmmm.I get the box it weighs like 50 pounds.Thats one BIG quilt I think.I dont think she knows how to count.There were 5 in the box, ALL king sized! What DOES this woman do besides quilt? hahahaha

I shouldnt be complaining. I mean its work. It just came at a bad time. I have 3 customer quilts sitting here, 6 oversized pillow shams for another customer, and a dress to hem. I got suckered into the dress, still not sure how.
So I took a deep breath and plunged ahead with the first one. I would like to go on record saying that this is the WORST panto ever! I am sorry to the designer although I doubt they read my blog. You will not make any money on this panto.None, nope not a dime.You will in fact lose money. Well if you are me you will. It was so stressful that I had to take a lot of breaks. I mean a lot! I started this on Monday. It is Thursday and I JUST finished...

It also led to the Back A##wards mess I found myself in....
When I get stressed I clean. I organize. I become disgruntled with furniture lay outs.I tear things apart...That is what happened today. Before I knew it everything in the quilt studio was in a pile in the middle of the room. Gracie has found a new area of the room to call home and I am sitting with this......Very blurry picture.The smart thing would have been to organize and do things in stages.I dont work that way.In my defense I really didnt know what I had done until one of the workers on our house walked by and about fell on the floor.He couldnt believed that I had moved Gracie for one thing and he also I think was a little unnerved by the mess in the middle. I dont know how I moved her. I just know I was mad at that Panto.

Now tomorrow instead of working and catching up I will still be cleaning and putting away....Like I said Back A##wards...

THANK YOU JODY!!!

2012-01-24T17:40:00.000-08:00

Look at the squishy that came in my mail today! The most awesome kit, I so totally love the fabric :)...And a cool turning tool. Really cool! Jody you should post a tutorial so I can put it on Pinterest!!!

Cabo Time

2012-01-19T19:00:00.000-08:00

Yes I am making up for the disappearing act I pulled. I gotta fill ya in on why I was gone!

So Hubby and I jetted off to Cabo....Yeah I SO wish it were that easy...We left headed to L.A. during one of the worst wind storms L.A. has ever seen. Of course we couldnt have an easy trip...No we have vacations most people would pay GOOD money to avoid!

We finally got to L.A. to await our flight to Cabo. Exhausted, cranky and sorely in need of adult beverages.I should of known that the worst was yet to come. we get lost like immediately and then find out we have like a ten mile hike to the right gate. I am so not kidding on the hike. I of course was wearing killer shoes..Killer being the operative word..By the time we found our gate I was bloody and limping...So be it.

Thankfully being late to our gate we didnt have long to wait. We get onto our plane and I think ahhhhhh a nice relaxing fight..Not so my friends not so! I am seated next to chatty Kathy and in front of The Golden Girls Married versions...I could tell you their life story but I wont. Some of it I may need therapy to forget.

We get to Mexico and after a two hour fight to get out of the airport we get on our shuttle. (that was an ordeal I will spare you, but if you are going to Cabo I will email you what NOT to do!) The drive to our Resort the Riu Palace was long about 45 min. Very depressing and I was in tears. So sad to see how some have to live. Especially as we are on our way to a resort!

Cabo is American. I know its in Mexico but let me tell you it is ALL about making the Americans happy. Grass, Malls, Home Depot, Costco, Starbucks......3 Starbucks! Of course I have no idea what I got as it was not so easy to order. But it was caffeinated..The resort was beautiful and better then I had thought it would be. And yes we did have fun. AM not in a hurry to go back to Cabo but that is because next year will be WH and My 25th anniversary and we are planning Australia! Not sure if my peeps will be able to go but its been my dream. Cant wait :)

This is pretty much what I did the WHOLE time! Usually there was a drink in my hand though :)..
We went zip lining again...One of however did NOT read the description of this event! Evidently it ALSO included rock climbing and rope bridges. And when I say rope brideges I dont mean rope holding up wood. I mean ROPE that you shimmy across....I am petrified of heights. I can handle zip lining. You are going to fast to care...The other however NO SO MUCH...I did what I had to do and took what they call the chicken path for the rest. Thats cool I love chickens..We went to a private beach called Lovers Cove..I had to wear my Green Bay bikini for all those Viking friends of mine.heehee..They are so much fun to tease.I love my friends. They are so much fun to play with.

I will miss them if they dont get to go with us next year......

Glitz and Glamor

2012-01-18T19:20:00.001-08:00

So Dec marked the one year anniversary of my pink posse.What started out as a joke has turned into an important girl time for me...Dec would make our fourth party. I took control with my co partner and fellow peep Dawny since the first one was my baby too. Well and we all know I do have control issues :).....

I LOVE dress up. I dont think I can even express how much I love dress up. I really think that I was meant to be a queen and get to wear royal attire all the time. Of course the first thing on my list to make was a crown! Really, are you surprised? SUPER duper simply and they really affirmed my royalty feelings :)

Next I went to the goodwill and purchase some cheap martini glasses and BLINGED them up!! Hobby Lobby sells glass safe paint. It is dishwasher safe and so easy. I did add the glitter :)....There is always a need for glitter.My girl Dawny had some terrific ideas and together we set a table to be proud of.

Arent my girls beautiful! They are beautiful inside and out.

The most special part of the evening though was that WH catered the whole dinner. We didnt lift a finger and he spoiled us rotten with 8 different yummy courses.

Yes spoiled would be the right word :)

Yay Fiber Content!!

2012-01-17T16:09:00.001-08:00

Believe it or not but amidst all my world travels I have been quilty busy :).....I finsished and gave out #3 of the stash quilts.No this isnt a picture of it finsished. I couldnt find my finished picture though. Then I had a wedding gift to make.....This is the back I quilted a feather meander. I just love feathers.
This quilt I started quite a few years ago for a Mystery class for RObins Place Fabrics in Soldotna, AK...Do you remember Jody? In the middle of the prep homework we got some horrible news. A dear friend of ours had died in a tragic accident.......
I attended the class but my heart wasnt in it. I got home from that class and put the quilt up. I have pulled it out from time to time and pondered on what to do with it. Should I finish or should I just get rid of it. Everytime I thought getting rid of it was the right answer something would stop me....
Im glad I didnt get rid of it. The newly married couple loves it and I feel like I crossed a hurdle. I have a couple other quilt tops with bad memories attached to them. Maybe I can tackle those.....We will see

This week I have a head cold. So since I am not out and about I am using that time to sew. Theraputic for sure. I will have pictures to show on that soon!

24 Years :)

2012-01-09T15:47:00.000-08:00

I cant wait to see what the next 24 years brings :)

I Disappeared Again.......

2012-01-08T17:31:00.000-08:00

I had good intentions of being really bloggy good but again life got in the way....No whining just business. And of course Facebook and Pinterest have NOT helped at all!!!

So I am going to make another start at this! I am going to make a list of the things I intend to blog about and all my fiber fun and goodness and then I am going to get busy!

Before

2011-11-17T07:12:00.001-08:00

I get back to the Stash quilts. I wanted to share the 3rd Pink Posse party.I am SO behind on posts! Not good not good.

September was the month for our 3rd party. we take turn hosting it and it was mine and Lissa's turn. The last one was all about Redneck dinner. So we had to outdo that! We decided it was time to turn back the clock. What a fun time we all had in the eighties. Or for some of us (meaning me) what fun I wanted to have in the eighties but didnt get to have.Lol

We had fun. It was ALL about the Retro.(can you believe we are talking about the 80s as retro!) I love how my girls take the theme and go overboard like I do :)

Dawn was rocking this rocker babe look.
The guys hid. Chickens. :)..The pizza guy thought it was hilarious!
And of course the FUNNEST part of the evening was embarrassing our children by going in public. Hahahahaha...I can tell you my kids are probably counting down the days until they can lock me away!

Stash Quilting

2011-11-13T18:38:00.000-08:00

I never forgot about my goal of 16 quilts by Sept....A little flooding, a few evacuations, cooking for relief workers. It put me back a little but I didnt forget! I have completed and given away two of them! The first one I do not have a finished picture of.It was the John Wayne log cabin. I loved this quilt. The second one I completed last week and it went out to a dear friend who is still housing an evacuated couple.I made her the tea cups. She loved it :)

I have the next one pulled out and ready to go on Gracie. After I get the MAMOTH customer quilt off the frame. I am happy to be stash quilting again. Very very happy.

So Just Have A Cow!!

2011-11-02T18:21:00.000-07:00

You know there is a story behind this :).....Keep in mind I still have some city girl tendencies. When we moved here I got the bright idea that North Dakota meant farm.For me! Yay me right?...First thing on my list chickens.Check! Next on the list hmmmmmm I know a cow! Hubby was going to be hard to get on board with this though. Most of the time he just shakes his head and laughs. A cow is a little more serious though. I ALMOST and I mean almost had him convinced until a friend busted my bubble.

Evidently (you may have already known this) you cannot train a cow to be milked at noon. See I have my chickens trained. They know I bring their food after noon. They sweetly greet me clucking and provide me with delicious eggs (BTW wish ya'll lived closer to give you eggs)...From what my friend tells me though you cannot do this with a cow.The actually expect to be milked at like 4 a.m.! They cannot be trained to a later time. No amount of wishing can change that....Dangit..

So no cow for me. :(...BUT for the barn dance I wanted to borrow one! What a great idea, right? Well evidently it was not a great idea to the owner of the shop. So again no cow for me :(......Or so I thought :)

Meet my cow.
This is one of my Pink Posse bff's..Colette. As a huge surprise she dressed up as a cow for me <3.....Now is that friendship or what. I love my girls....So of course the Pink Posse needed a new picture. BTW back drop was painted by her also.I cannot wait until next years barn dance. Hubby will have his new shop by then and he said I can finally have a REAL live cow! Petting zoo is what I am thinking. I mean I have the chickens already and did I tell you we are getting goats!

After We Decorated :)

2011-10-24T18:14:00.000-07:00

I was so happy to see that all my dreams and visions of what it would look like came true! My girls showed up to help the night before and by the time I had the tables decorated they were done! They knew exactly what I wanted and had even better ideas for things then I imagined :)...We drank out of mason jars with red neck glass markers....twine and western tags we put our mark on our personal glass.Straw bales everywhere with a table for party favors and the cake....Party favors were gold chocolate coins wrapped in burlap and c.d. with music from the old westerns.One of my girls painted a beautiful desert backdrop.We borrowed wagon wheels and antique farm tools,equipment,and a real cow skull. John Wayne came from a great novelty store that sells cardboard stand ups.I used a few of my quilts to hide the walls of the shop.Half the tables had chips and salsa and the others had peanuts with galvanized buckets...I cheated on those :)...Bought buckets at the goodwill and other thrift stores then spray painted them silver. So much cheaper then the actual galvanized ones.I found fake barbed wire, straw cowboy hats,and handkerchiefs from Oriental trading company. The handkerchiefs we used as napkins.
The best was the cake!!!! WOWZERS did my friend do an amazing job.

Even came with pooping cows!

I had SO MUCH FUN planning and then pulling this party off. I collected decorations for months and I am so happy that all the details worked out and it really looked like what I had dreamed of.

Next blog my BIG surprise! Boy did my girls pull one on me!

Before The Barn dance

2011-10-19T18:31:00.001-07:00

To celebrate the ending of a horrible summer and the rebuilding of 7 houses we needed a big big BIG party. I dont know how well ya'll know me but I love throwing a big party.So I and my posse took control and threw a HUGE party. :) ...We decided on a Barn Dance. It just seemed to fit the bill. But that started a large ball rolling. Where to have it and how to pull it off.

I thought we had the location covered but it fell through.Thats when WH came through for me. He had a brand new shop he was very happy to let us use. One thing I love about my WH is that he knows I love to go overboard!...Such a good man. He gave me full control of his shop :). He did this knowing me too! So the preparations were underway!

The timing on this actually started a few months ago. We started haunting garage sales (in Bismarck) , thrift stores and even Hobby Lobby :)...Oh how I do love Hobby Lobby.

Decorations took control of my house, my garage, my car.....It seemed we were never going to be normal again. The joke was that our house was a bad western that BLEW UP!!!Ooooh the preparations..The baking..........The flowers!!!!!

The fun :).........We ate out of of old pie and cake tins.

Everyone got their own Redneck Wine Glass, hehehehe
And of course we needed a chicken!

More to follow, it WAS the party of the year!!!

HELP

2011-10-18T12:58:00.000-07:00

Do any of my MYSTERY ladies have the patterns anymore? One of our ladies would like to finish the quilt and I am having trouble locating it. She would like to finish it at a retreat coming up. THANK YOU!!!

P.S...I havent given up looking! I dont know why I cant find it....ugh

Goals

2011-10-17T16:38:00.000-07:00

We have reached a few!

All of our friends that were displaced from the flood are back in their houses or are close. It was long rough, hard road! GOAL REACHED!

Barn dance was a HUGE success and we celebrated the end of a disaster and the beginning of a new future. GOAL REACHED!

Oak park was finally cleaned yesterday and they actually announced that soon it will be reopening to the public! Still work to do this summer with the money from Coca Cola but GOAL REACHED!

Now to my personal goals. THIS week I will be sending out the prize packages. I am sooooooooooo late in sending them. But I wanted them to be special and not just thrown together. So it has been taking time. KAY I promise, yours in amazing :)

THANK YOU all for sticking around this summer. My blog posts have not been happy or even frequent. That is another goal I am going to set. Happy more frequent posts.

Blog Gifts

2011-09-19T17:21:00.000-07:00

I havent forgotten you! If you havent emailed me your address yet please do! I am working on them :)

WINNERS

2011-09-08T06:21:00.000-07:00

Honestly this was one of the hardest drawing I have ever done. Not just because I had thousands of entries...And I do mean thousands.Thank HEAVENS for printers! I really should of taken pictures but my camera is packed for a camping trip this weekend and I just didnt have the energy to figure out which bag I put it in.....It was also hard because ya'll ALL deserve to get a prize. I am emotional this morning so please excuse that.

You cant in a million years know how much this meant to me to help me out. As I said in a previous post our kiddos lost so much this year. Now they have started back to school and they are doing this from shelters. When the announcement came out that they won for their park it gave them joy. That is worth all my hours of staring at codes and double checking my cap lock.hahahah

So before hubby has a fit that I am not getting the camper ready here are the winners. Yes I did pick 4...Like I said it was emotional...So 1 Grand Prize Winner and 3 Smaller prizes..I will need yall to email me privately your mailing Addys..I will be gone till Monday and then I will get to work on your prizes!

GRAND PRIZE

1. KAY ROLLAG PETERSON

SMALL PRIZES

1.FRANKLY FRANKIE

2.TART DECO

3.CATHY D (MQR)

Congrats! and THANK YOU AGAIN!!!!

WE WON!!!!!

2011-09-07T06:37:00.000-07:00

WE WON!!!!!

Thank you so much ALL of you for helping us out.I cannot even begin to tell you what it means to us.It will take me tomorrow to gather ALL the entries since there were SOOOOOOO many :)...But I will announce a winner tomorrow before I leave for camping.....

AGAIN I THINK YOU!!!!

Can you help?????

2011-07-20T15:10:00.000-07:00

MINOT, ND can really use your help! We are begging for help actually. I am not above doing that when its for the kids... Our beautiful OAK PARK has been devastated by the flood. I know we have bigger problems but this is one we can do something about!

I've listed the statistics before so you know how widespread the flood was. I wont bore you with those details again. I will just tell you this. Oak Park was where we took our kids to play.Where we walked to enjoy the nature. Where families got together for a great picnic. More then that it was a Magic Smiles Park which means that its was physically accessible to ALL children. The only one we had. It is going to take so much money to rebuild this park....This is where you come in! No we arent asking for money we are asking for votes!

Coca Cola is giving away $100,000. to the park that wins. Please help. There is no limit to how many times you can vote. You do not have to register either. I would really appreciate any help at all. The contest goes until Sept 6th.....THANK YOU!!

VOTE FOR OAK PARK IN MINOT NORTH DAKOTA!

KX News Minot Flood 2011 Photo Montage

2011-06-26T11:17:00.000-07:00

MINOT NORTH DAKOTA

2011-06-23T19:25:00.000-07:00

Just a quick check in. The water has NOT hit the high levels yet and this is what we are dealing with.My heart breaks for this town I love so much.
But so far everyone is safe. That is ALL that matters. Stuff is just stuff and CAN be replaced.
Life can NOT!
We are still high and dry. With "new " family living with us.
And that is a good thing!

BAD NEWS :(

2011-06-20T19:24:00.000-07:00

The city of Minot, Burlington, Sawyer, and Logan are under a mandatory evacuation.

The dams in Canada have had to release double to almost triple the amounts of water they have been releasing. There will be flooding. Maybe up to 7 feet higher then has been recorded in history.

We are high and dry but have a couple coming to live with us tomorrow. We do not know for how long and frankly I dont care. I am just heartsick for the many who are scrambling to get out right now. It is a mad house and frankly scares me.

I will try and keep you updated as the flooding is expected to start Thurs/Fri peak by Monday and continue at that level for two weeks.

Tired and Cranky

2011-06-12T18:06:00.000-07:00

THIS is what you are supposed to do with water!!! ( I posted this because I needed the smile! My little man in Washington)THIS is NOT what water is supposed to be doing!
We haven't really gotten a lot of rain lately. In fact our weather has been pretty good. This is all releases from the lakes and dams in Canada still.
Amazing isn't it.
You should NOT see a lake here!
Spent all day yesterday helping my friends haul wet sheet rock, insulation, and flooring out of their house. Load after load after load. I discovered a few things. I am not 20 anymore ( I am so very very sore today), The smell of raw sewage is NOT something I want to smell ever again, I have a deep intense obsession with power tools, and last but not least you REALLY need to look before you leap...

Evidently nails sticking up out of sub flooring will puncture cute rubber galoshes. Sheesh. Foot went straight into bleach water, quickly looked up date of last tetanus shot, then smacked myself for not being more aware of what I was doing. As WH put it, ALL those warnings for safety have my name at the bottom. I am sooooooooo accident prone its unbelievable.

Today was muck out crawl space. Can I admit I am grateful that only a couple people will fit in a crawl space? I have had enough raw sewage for one weekend.

where's waldo???

2011-06-04T17:04:00.000-07:00

In a nutshell:

We have been back from Disney World for a couple weeks. Driving to Florida was quite an adventure. I LOVED every state we visited and LOVED seeing people I love along the way. I do have pictures to share at a later date.

Disney World. What can I say. I am a DW addict! WH and little A not so much. Thank heavens worker boy had fun! Even though his BF had tonsillitis and spent 3 days in bed. One of my BFs flew down and we tackled yet another Star Wars weekend! WH and little A never left the pool!

Driving home was yet another adventure with barely missing storms and tornados. But we have nothing to complain about as we made it home safely...........

To start off the adventure of the last two weeks let me just say I am JUST now sitting down to take a breath! Our house is high and dry. I wish I could say the same for so many others. Minot has experienced flooding they haven't experienced in over 100 years. Two of our friends have lost their homes completely.

Almost a week ago I got a text message from another. In it she made a comment that she was on her way to get sand bags........?????WHAT?????..We had no inkling their house was in danger. It was raining and the dykes that Minot was so busy building were failing. I texted the rest of the pink posse and we were off! Not an easy fete as at this point half our highways and back roads were barricaded off being flooded. WH went through them.

We got to our friends barely. The roads were covered in water.The need for sand bags was huge. So off we went. In the hour we were gone the water rose around their house over a foot. We sand bagged all we could. By the time we were finished you could see that the water was enveloping house after house inching its way to theirs. We put up as much stuff as we could and had to retreat. We barely made it out. The water came up past the tires on the truck. A lot of praying was going on.

The next day my wonderful friends (even the ones we had helped the night before) took off and helped in emergency evacuations around Minot. This was so tiring and SO heart wrenching. Watching panic on older ones who had no clue how to say goodbye to all they knew. And yet they did. We tried to help get treasured items up and out. One older gentleman broke my heart. He only cared about his mothers old iron bed. But when it came down to it he just wanted us to help his wife. We made sure we got that bed up. He was such a sweetheart. When he cried we all did.

It continued to rain. We just kept moving. When I went home that night I almost couldnt get home. This through me into the first panic attack I have had here. I had made little A stay home. I knew she was safe there. But WH at this point had left for Canada on a trip he couldnt cancel. So all I could think of was that I needed to find someone to get to her. I found a backroad though and finally did make it home. A 5 minute drive took almost a 1/2 hour. The next couple days the t.v. never went off. We were on flood watch. At this point I wasnt leaving again and over 10,000 people had been evacuated from Minot and the city was basically shut down to watch the river.

We are a couple days past the worst. The dykes held. And they have allowed almost half the evacuees back into their homes. So many have lost homes though. But the mid west spirit here is AMAZING! Complaints are few, thanking God for safe loved ones is plenty. In the next week we will be moving many back into their homes.My friends are trying to assess damage and go from there. It will be weeks before the water will let them back in. Right now they can only boat in. This is a picture of their home.

I have nothing to complain about and so much to be thankful for. Believe me I am too.

Lovin The Girl Quilt!

2011-05-06T18:24:00.000-07:00

I finishes the little girl quilt I was working on. I STILL hate circles but I am happy with how the quilt turned out. :)...Now off to make all the accessories to go with it and get it quilted!

Rock The Cradle!

2011-05-04T16:05:00.000-07:00

Highlights from the little guys baby shower. These arent the best photo's but the camera girl has been uber busy and keeps forgetting to send them to me!

So I kyped these off of facebook from the moms folder :)...
My friend aka camera girl hand painted this sign! VERY impressed!
This is the happy family. Thanks to all our hubbys and a few others we were able to construct the arch in less then 1/2 hour. Camera girls hubby is wicked awesome and he blew them all up for us. With the help of an air compressor but still!
One of my BFFS here has a mom that is crazy talented with candy. She made all the suckers for our table centerpieces...I love this woman!
How cool is this guy! He was the main table decoration.

We made Rock The cradle C.D.s with a compilation of songs that the family picked. What a great treasure to have for the little guy to listen to later!
The best was the cake. I was most impressed with our local supermarkets abilities!

Now we are off and planning a SUPER SUPER girly girl shower. I so would LOVE to do this for a living!

I forgot

2011-04-24T15:42:00.000-07:00

That I HATE curves.....1 down 51 to go............

Baby Boy Goodies

2011-04-22T17:05:00.001-07:00

So I had to wait for the diaper bag to come in before I could share the pictures. My favorite customer from Ak makes all my diaper bags in exchange for quilting. I really think I get the best of the deal here. A. I wouldnt charge her if I had to ask for money. She is 85 and is diligently making quilts for all of her family to have something from her. She spoils me rotten with homemade gifts ALL the time, she makes WH cookies and goodies everytime he stops by there, and she calls him her ever lovin little darlin.

This woman has stolen my heart. B. She is WH's gmas BFF. Nuff said, lol.....
The diaper bag was actually done way before the shower. When WH went to AK to pick it up he would have been home in plenty of time to wrap it with the other gifts. BUT.......There is always a but with me, have you noticed that? But his mom (who lives in Hawaii) got very sick. Scared us both silly, so WH took off from AK to see her in Hawaii. She is ok thank heavens. Taking too many different meds caused her kidneys to start shutting down. Dr.s figured this out in plenty of time and got her all straightened out.

In the meantime my diaper bag is soaking up the sun....uh huh, hmmmmmmmm. Good thing WH brought me back Kona Coffee and a sea turtle gift!
So here are the rest of the goodies, two hooter hiders, a diaper wipe container, and four burp rags.
And here is the little guys quilt! Thank you Jody for picking out all the fabric! The new momma and daddy were very very happy with it all, and that makes me happy :).

When Its Dreary Outside

2011-04-21T14:54:00.000-07:00

I want to sew....Even though I have two stash flimsies still to start I just couldnt get into the quilt mood. Which really isnt good because I have two baby quilts that need to be quilted and mailed before Disney World..Sigh...Its that W.A.B. disease again. (for those of you that may have missed that post its Work Avoidance Behaviour, and I have a very severe case)

So instead I decided to Kraft With K ! She has an amazing blog with all sorts of fun things. But I was REALLY interested in a certain project she had listed. An insulated lunch bag! A very good friend of mine is going to be taking some special schooling in a couple months and I am making her a "goodie" basket. Well until I found this lunch bag. Now all her "goodies" are going into it!

Her instructions were wonderful! Well let me rephrase that Her pictures were wonderful and I KNOW her instructions must have been too. Only the phone rang and it was my Tennessee BFF and well I forgot to actually follow the instructions.This is ALSO an ongoing problem with me. And as I learned with this bag along with every other project I have flown by the seat of my pants with, following the ACTUAL directions would of been SO MUCH better! Either way because of her wonderful pictures I did end up with a bag I am proud of. Tomorrow if I still am avoiding the stash flimsies I am going to make a couple more of these! I think they are going to make great gifts and I want one!
BABY UPDATE!!!

Sandy (my hen) is still patiently sitting on her eggs. 7 more days and we will see if any or all will hatch! So exciting :)....

My babies are now two weeks old. They are starting to get some big chicken feathers. No clue yet as to whether they actually gave me all pullets or not yet but I am hopeful that I didnt end up with all males. WHen I figure it out then I can start naming them.
So thats life on the funny farm for today. Whats up in your neck of the woods?

Stash Flimsy Goodness!

2011-04-18T18:16:00.000-07:00

The birds THINK its spring!!!! So I know I havent been posting much fiber content lately. Sorry for that! But to make up for it I have Flimsy 14!
And 15!!... If I have those numbers correct then that means to accomplish my goal I only have two more to do :)...That is PURE happiness!
But then I have to get them all quilted and bound....oh yay! lol

Disney World

2011-04-11T17:22:00.000-07:00

Worker boy graduates from high school in just one month. :).....That two down one to go! As a graduation gift to our son we are bringing his best friend down from AK and taking them to Disney World.Just finished paying it off today. SO SO SO very excited to go! After all its the happiest place on earth!

Have a VERY hard time staying focused in the sewing room. How does one stay focused when its 60-70 degrees outside? I vow to get some quilty pictures up this week....

Bad Chicken Momma!

2011-04-06T17:24:00.000-07:00

That would be me!

So here is the story. I just would like to say at the beginning of this that I am a NEWBI when it comes to these chickens!

Evidently last week my hen Sandy laid a baby egg. This would be different in her eyes then an eating egg. In my eyes however I saw eating egg. This would be where the problem started. Sandy had gotten up off of the nest and so I took it. And we ate it! I had NO CLUE!!!!

This however was a BAD BAD BAD thing to Sandy! She became depressed. I mean REALLY really depressed! Who knew!!! I didnt!!!! All of a sudden she wouldnt leave her brooding box. She sat in there day after day. So sad and depressed. It didnt take me long to realize that I was a bad chicken mom. I neglected to see the brooding signs......

So I facebooked a friend who I knew had chickens. Not sure what to do and she had the greatest idea. She brought me 12 fertile eggs and late last night I placed them under Sandy. The first 4 she couldnt of cared less. After that though she started to really get indignant...To my surprise she was protecting her eggs!!! I got the others in but they were not under her. No clue as to what I would see when I popped in their today.....

To my surprise she had ALL 12 tucked sweetly under her and she was very watchful to make sure I only brought food and did not touch her eggs. :) So the chicken momma has been forgiven. Atleast until my next big oops.....

In 21 days we will know wether these eggs were fertile or not. I really hope so as I dont think Sandy could take that!

Big Sisters Quilt :)

2011-03-30T18:05:00.000-07:00

Well I am doing these posts backwards. I wont repeat what my daddy used to call it. But I am sure some of Yall can figure it out ;-)....... I wanted to start with the baby shower photo's but my friend and designated photographer went to Disney World. Lol....Then I was going to show you all the baby boy gifts.....But one of the gifts didnt make it in time and I have to show them all together.It made a side trip to Hawaii......(long story)

SO I am starting out backwards!!!! I just wasnt feeling the boy gifts. Not in a boy mood I guess. I was actually in quite a mood about it. I referred to the whole lot as boy ugly! Dont take offense Jody! You picked out an awesome quilt and fabric. It just wasnt what I was in the mood for. (mom & dad however were over the moon with it)

To make myself happy I decided that big Sis needed her own quilt and matching doll quilt. Of course I didnt read sizes and it came out twin sized! I swear one of these days I need to actually read ALL the directions! Jody picked out these fabrics too! When I got them in the mail I KNEW they fit little princess Abigail. I love love love them!
BTW she got the doll quilt because the stupid directions were so confusing I evidently cut out a million EXTRA squares! I swear, I reread that part 20 times and STILL messed it up..Oh well it worked out in the end.
I used a pretty pink Perma core thread and just did a feather meander on the both quilts. I should of gotten a better picture but when I went to get a close up I noticed all the dog hair all over the floor I just had vacuumed! Worker boys lab is shedding so much I could build another dog!

Just Smile :)

2011-03-29T16:52:00.000-07:00

Now that it is warming up outside I can look at this from last week and not want to scream. We got a total of 13 inches. I am a bad mommy. I just had to make her wait until I could get a picture.Lol

Today since I was needing a "spring break" I decided to start my tomato's and Cucumbers. I cant wait to put them in the ground! I still cant believe I and looking forward to gardening. That is not like me!

My favorite book at the moment. Its really better then my gardening for dummies book. More tailored for ND. Breaks down what to do month by month and what to start indoors. I am a little behind since I forgot that I had it!
Oh yeah! There was some fiber therapy going on too! Remember Crush? Well He is done! He is huge, but he is done. Wow I really cant believe how big he is.
The Rock The Cradle baby shower was this weekend too. I was a wonderful wonderful party. I will have pictures of that and more of my stash quilts soon :)

Confused?

2011-03-23T19:01:00.000-07:00

It must be me. I surely thought we were headed into spring!!!!We wound up getting 13 inches. Woke up to a wonderful white wonderland. Taking care of the chickens was sure peachy.Lol

A Bright Day After All

2011-03-21T18:31:00.000-07:00

Today did NOT start of looking good. Woke up to a news cast that we are expecting up to 15 inches of snow. That would be after it has rained for the day. K.....I am sure that will be a bonus to help with the flooding. The snow will cover up the yucky mud though so lets look on the bright side.It could be worse.

I go to do my 2.5 miles on the treadmill and my ipod is broke...No problem I will just one of the kids. Yup all dead. But hey I have my computer I can just plug it in..K now I am running late but it could be worse right?

Little A lets the dogs out while I am in the shower trying to help me out. Worker Boys dog somehow finds a break in the fence and makes a break for it.Bel of course decides this is GREAT fun and takes off after her. Little A by this time is sidetracked trying to figure out what to eat for breakfast and neglects to mention this. I head down to the quilt studio to begin working as I have a good friend coming over to learn how to run Gracie.

Something seems to be missing though...Oh yeah its my dog. At this point she is usually trying to rip off the bottom of my pants or take off with the socks that are on my feet. Hmm where is she? By the time Little A remembers she put them out they have been gone for an hour. Bel has NEVER run away before.

I of course kept my calm and did NOT start bawling like a 2 year old. Worker boy takes off in his truck, poor Little A is running up and down hills and into backyards in her jammies, and I am NOT freaking out and screaming Bels name out like a crazed woman.

About this time WH calls from AK to try and calm me down as I had sent him a text claiming that I was going to kill Worker Boys dog with his shotgun as THAT stupid dog had come home ALONE! I swear she was trying to loose my Bel on purpose.

Are you still with me or have I lost you to my ranting? Well, as I am trying to remember where my WH has put his shot gun shells my friend shows up. I realise I should calm down as she really thinks I have it all together all the time. Such a silly wonderful woman. I blow my nose and welcome her into the house. I tell Little A she should probably get dressed so the neighbors dont call the authorities and then call Worker boy to tell him that he should just keep driving. My friend is so sweet and wants to start driving to neighbors for me but I tell her Little A and I will do that later. Right about that time Bel comes running in an open door just looking pleased as punch with herself. Agh!She got in SO much trouble and wound up grounded to her kennel for the afternoon.

I fixed a strong cup of coffee ( and no I did not put any adult spin on it) and played with my friend for the afternoon. It could of been worse but it wasnt. It turned into a very very enjoyable day. A day needed by this quilter very badly. Friends are a blessing arent they? I cherish ALL of you!

Casey Abrams : With A Little Help From My Friends : American Idol Top 13

2011-03-10T10:30:00.000-08:00

I am Loving me som Casey!!!! I am so proud of all 3 of my favorite guys though James Durbin and also Scotty McCreary! I think its a guys year on AI!!!

Im Feeling Productive :0)

2011-03-07T19:21:00.000-08:00

I just LOVE that feeling.

I finished stash flimsy #13 yesterday. 4 more to go to reach my goal! On top of being so close to reach my goal I have completed one of the baby quilt tops, started another that wasnt on the list, and have even started all the baby shower goodies to go with the quilt.
I felt so good today that I even got my 2.5 miles in on the treadmill. I LOVE winning over a sinus headache! I had even forgotten about my netti pot (thank you Laura) so next one I feel coming on is going to get an extra whammy. I will tell you that I was given a tincture by my mom when I was there. Its called Oregon grape. nastiest taste even but I really do think its the reason I didnt wind up at the doctors today.

Just thought I would share my view. Whenever I sit down to get on the laptop Bel thinks she is needed to help. Most of the time she is sitting ON the laptop. she is quite the helper!

Nap Time!!

2011-03-06T16:31:00.000-08:00

Woke up with a horrible sinus headache and in a foul mood. No pun intended on my chicken swap goodies! :) Nothing else for me to do but loose myself in the quilt studio where I can play with things that make me happy....

But first I got some pictures of my Hot Mama Chicken Swap goodies!!! Boy did Laura spoil me rotten!!! She made me a wonderful rooster mug rug. ALong with that is the cutest little chicken clip ( you can see it on the corner of the mug rug.) A wonderful Chicken coffee mug, some yummy tea I am going to try in about 5 min, and also some recipes for chicken crock pot dinners! I cant wait to try those too!
The best part are the aprons.....Yes I said aprons. She sent two!!!! Now forgive the pictures. My martha is a little portly and so she doesnt show these aprons off to their best. They are fabulous! I cant decide which one I love the most! Thank you Laura!!These are my goodies from the Cheer Up swap. They did make me smile :). Wendy did such a fun job with all my little goodies! I again cant decide what I love the most but I am thinking the little rabbit finger puppets.Lol. They crack me up. I truly do love it all though.

So this is one of the things I accomplished today. :).....I settled on purse pattern. I cant say I love it but I do think it turned out nicely. I think my friend will like it.

I also finished two more quilt tops. One a stash quilt the other one of the baby quilt tops. Unfortunately my head is still hurting but my foul mood is gone! There is something so therapeutic about playing with fabric and goodies!

Getting My Groove Back

2011-03-04T18:38:00.000-08:00

Why does it take so long to get it back? If I go anywhere it takes me about a week to get back going. I forced myself today though to go down to the quilt studio.Then I didnt want to leave! Go figure. I am on a time crunch now though. Baby shower is in 3 weeks and I havent even started the quilt! I have a list of other things to get done too.Ugh.

Not to mention I have an anniversary gift to get made this week. I have until Friday when they come over for dinner.Hehehehe. Nothing like a deadline. I am thinking I am going to make my friend a purse. Any easy peasy pattern ideas would be much appreciated.

I took a TON of photos to share including my Cheer up swap goodies. But I cant find my uploader. I am sure its where I last put it but who can know where that it.........

SInce I cant leave without posting a picture though I thought I would update you on my little man.I love it when his mommy sends me new pics. He haas learned how to use his dump truck as a wheel chair :)..I love this kid.

Not Quilt Related

2011-03-02T15:09:00.001-08:00

I am a terrible bowler but its never about the game with us. Just the company :) .....I love these people.They make life so much fun!

My skater boy is so much a young man now. I cant believe he will be 18 soon.I am the second B and also AHEAD!! Just this game though the next ones I bombed.
Of course a good beer will always help!
I wanted so badly to quilt today but it just didnt happen. I havent been able to get my groove back since we got home from Moms. It doesnt help that the basement is tile floor and its below zero out. I need to get my little heater back on. That always solves the floor problem. :)

frugal girls

2011-02-28T17:42:00.000-08:00

i tried to send this through text but it scrambles all my texts....so weird.will have to look into that.

we are still on the road home. a LONG trip made longer. we now have a new fuel pump and two new tires! yay us .

i wanted to share frugal girls with you. i feel they are personally responsible for my sanity and my childs life.FREE ebooks!! i cant figure out how to attach the link from my phone. they are on facebook tho...tons of free goodies and coupons plus amazon free ebooks! two just today.

ok now back to my joyful road trip. i bet yall are just wishing you could be here!

Will The Real #12

2011-02-21T16:59:00.000-08:00

Please show yourself. so I miscounted in the title of my last post. This would be the real #12....

I didnt have to buy any fabrics for this either. :0)...I was given a bali pop strip set a few years back that I just never seemed to find the right pattern for. I like how it turned out in the quilt!

I will be missing my quilt room for the next week. I didnt even get to quilt today. :0(...I made baby shower invites all day. Was I really into stamping? Why??? I just did not enjoy it. I love the finished product but the getting there isnt as much fun as I think its going to be. I wound up printing the dang things off of my laptop then just layering. I will show a picture later. When I get the whole baby shower together. The theme is Rockstar Baby lets Rock The cradle! :0) Fun fun!

Flimsies # 11 and #12

2011-02-19T16:06:00.001-08:00

I really miss my quilt wall. These pictures are awful!

Here are flimsies #10
And #11
Absolutely no extra fabrics purchased for these! That makes me smile :0).... ALmost all of these fabrics were bought from a friend that was liquidating her stash. She was going to be moving into a care facility and her grandkids did not want to deal with all the fabric. Most of it was just bits and pieces and almost all of it was not my taste. But wow I am happy with how I have been able to use it all.

I will have one maybe two more tops to show you this week. Wed. though I am off for a mom fix. I need to check in on her and see that she doesn't need anything. She for sure wont tell me over the phone as she doesnt like e to worry.I wonder when she will figure out it makes me worry more? We also are going to take this opportunity to bring home the 5th wheel she and my dad owned. She cant sell it in Cali so we told her we would buy it and sell our old one here. Our old one is a bunkhouse with 6 beds. Definitely will be able to sell it here with the shortage on housing for the oilfield workers that seem to be pouring into the state.... I am so not sorry about getting rid of it. Served a purpose but I have never loved it.

Hello My Name Is Becca

2011-02-18T19:59:00.000-08:00

I am addicted to American Idol.......... I am not planning on changing this either!!!

If you havent seen this kid you are missing out. He gave me the shivers he was so good! The last time that happened was when Carrie Underwood auditioned. Just thought I would share.And JODY he ISNT country so you are safe to watch!

Tomorrow I will post pictures of my new flimsies!

I Call This

2011-02-15T16:53:00.000-08:00

Soon spring will be here.....Besides the fact that the window was dirty and the yard needs to be cleaned I see hope! Two days ago all we could see was snow. Now we can see grass. :0)....Yes I know that winter is not over yet. That we will still get single digit temps, and most likely another dump of snow.....
So what.hehehehe. It cant last for every! Definitely not as long as we have already been dealing with it. So yes I am feeling spring in the air!

I call this stash Flimsy #9!
As with the last two I posted I did not purchase any other materials for this top. :0)...Thats happiness! Basketball fabric was not an unusual purchase for me. Im still hoping that someone comes out with some Sacramento Kings fabric. We need a Kings quilt.

Im actually done with #10.But forgot to get a picture. #'s 11 and 12 are not far behind!

Really?

2011-02-14T19:04:00.000-08:00

So yesterday sometime our Internet was hacked into.

Now we have had a wireless router for years. Never had a password on it. I know I know, bad girl. But you have to understand I have always had to throw myself on the mercies of anyone available to connect, assemble, or fix anything that has to do with technology. It seems that in my house I am the guru of the group. Now thats sad let me tell you.

So there we are. This idiot decided to put a password on our internet....Really? I mean you couldnt keep just borrowing it? I was ok with that. Instead you had to mess with me. I had to actually spend time on the phone with tech people! I HATE doing that. The conclusion was that we had to get a new router. For some stupid reason we were not even able to reset the box.

After a miserable 24 hours of NO internet we are back up and running and all I can think of is this had better not happen again! We have a strong password on our wireless now and I have had a good strong adult beverage. Sigh all is well in or house again for now.

A Blast From The Past

2011-02-08T16:12:00.000-08:00

A friend sent this to me the other day through Facebook. I hadnt ever seen this photo. But boy did it evoke all sorts of memories and thoughts. I dont remember when it was taken but I remember what life was like then. Simple.....sigh. I miss simple... The thoughts though! First off WH has hair! lol...I have quite big hair, and seriously what was I wearing?I love seeing old photos. Oldest daughter sure was a tiny thing and makes me smile remembering what it was like to be a new mom............

I have been doing a little fabric shopping.Not to replace that stash that I am using but for up coming projects. SO yes there is some justification here.
Two baby showers in the near future and you know how I love making those baby gifts. Cute little things that finish up rather quickly!

These are the projects I live for. My candy projects. Who doesnt love baby items?
I know I do :0)

Happy Girl!!!

2011-02-06T20:07:00.001-08:00

Despite the fact my Mathews Jersey did not come in and I could not find my GB socks! CONGRATS GREENBAY on a great game! And thank you very much for giving me the next few months to rub this in to ALL my Vikings friends and Raiders WH! heeheehee

Bring It On!!!!!

2011-02-05T20:11:00.000-08:00

Sorry this is NOT a fiber related post!

GO PACK GO!!!!!!!

My Clay Mathews Jersey didnt make it in time to wear for the game. Good thing I have my Rogers jersey. I did however get my tattoo (temporary), my new cheese earrings, and my nails are green and yellow baby! Football candy and cookies are made and I am ready to duke it out with those steeler fans I will be around tomorrow! Hmph they dont know who they are messin with. Quilters are tough!

Cookie Dough Mystery

2011-02-03T16:13:00.000-08:00

So I go to pull the leftovers out of the fridge and low and behold there is a bowl full of chocolate chip cookie dough! I did not make this cookie dough. In fact had I even known there was cookie dough in the fridge I would of eaten it! Probably good thing I didnt know.

Im the one that put the leftovers IN the fridge. I saw no cookie dough. Confused the tar out of me until WH fessed up. He couldnt sleep a couple nights ago and made it after everyone was asleep! The fact that it sat in their two days without being discovered is a shock. I am not a huge cookie fan but I will walk over hot coals for cookie dough. Add into the fact that I have been a hormonal, emotional basket case surviving off of M&Ms and candy corn its pretty darn near close to a miracle he did not come into the house to find me sitting in a corner with a spoon and the bowl!

He had better not play that game with me in the future. I now know he likes to make cookie dough when he cant sleep. I will be on the watch!

So here are stash flimsies #7

and #8
I have #9 almost done and #10 started. It is such a good feeling to have a dent made in my stash. However the thought of quilting all these is giving me nightmares.Lol

Back To The Stash

2011-02-01T17:18:00.000-08:00

Here are Flimsies #5 and #6.Now as to why I have yards of music material thats easy. Worker Boy has been my musical kid. Plays the piano beautifully and has always loved music. So having a ton of music fabric is not a stretch......
As to WHY in the name of all thats holy did I have 5 yards of Hello Kitty fabric? No earthy idea! But what a score. One of the people I am making quilts for is obsessed with H.K. like I am sea turtles! How is that for lucky, eh?
This is one of the chicken fabrics I am considering for my chicken lovin partner.Isnt it cool? I will share the other one with you as soon as it gets here......Yes I DID buy fabric! I never promised I wouldnt. Heheheh :0)

Two Drink Minimum

2011-01-31T16:24:00.000-08:00

My favorite customer sent me this wedding ring last week. Looks pretty flat doesn't it........ :0).....She is amazing my favorite customer. 80 something and still whipping those quilts out. I will pull out ALL the tricks to flatten out her tops. I just feel privileged she still wants to send her quilt tops from Alaska.I also joined another swap. I couldnt hel[ myself! How can you say no to a Cheer Up swap? It looks like so much fun and I cant wait to stalk my partners blog to see how I can cheer them up!
Dont think I have given up on my Stash quilts. I am on 8 right now! I just haven't gotten pictures of the last finished flimsies. Wouldn't you know it other quilts just creep right in there and demand attention! I havent added any new material to the stash yet. I say yet because my favorite Quilt shop employee Jody should be sending me some soon! In my defense though its for a baby quilt that I actually couldn't pull from my stash for!

I even had a hard time believing that but its true!

My Peeps :0)

2011-01-25T17:36:00.001-08:00

Id like you to meet my ND buddies. Well one of them is actually from AK like me. These are the girls I play with. My girls :0).We decided that we needed a special night out for just us. No hubbies, no kids, just us.
We laughed until we cried and there was never a lull in the converstion.
We made pretty pink Martini's and went to a special restaurant for dinner.
I cant wait until we have another girls night. I think everyone should take that time with their girls!

Playoff Party!

2011-01-24T16:12:00.001-08:00

Great times and great friends.
As you can see we did allow a few Bears fans into the house.

But we prevailed!
Hard day shopping for a few new Packer items and baby I am SET for superbowl!

Football Break

2011-01-23T20:06:00.000-08:00

Phew! What a stressful day! Pictures on the game day later. Lol. We had a house FULL of packers/bears fans. It got LOUD let me tell you! But the PACK prevailed and on to the Superbowl!!!!! Yeah baby! Color me happy :)....

Anyhow this is another stash buster. Not part of the 16 though! My fave cousin called me in hopes I could hook her up with a baby quilt for a good friends baby shower. It is SO SAD that I had just what she was looking for in my stash. Not only did I have enough for the quilt but also a matching hooter hider....Ladies I have a problem.hahahahaha Again, not one I plan on changing but still a problem none the less.
You didnt think I would get a picture of the quilt without Bel did you? Tried to get WH to hold her but he was to busy laughing that she was growling at the camera.

Hope your weekend was as good as mine!!!!!

GO PACK!!!!

LET's GO GREENBAY!!!!!

2011-01-22T17:13:00.000-08:00

My new light. :0).....Is anyone else nervous for tomorrow? I am also plugging for the Jets. I would love to see a Greenbay/Jets Superbowl!

True Story

2011-01-21T12:55:00.000-08:00

Had to go to Home of Economy ( the everything store) today to get coveralls of Skater boy who has become worker boy....Thought that was the perfect store as they also carry animal feed and well fiesta ware, cowboy bbots, john deere clothing ,and many other things that make my heart go pitter pat.....

So as I am checking out I tell the nice young man "hey can you throw some layer feed on the bill".........He looks at me and says with a totally serious straight face "for your horses?"....!!!!!!!!..... You would of been proud of me.I did not start laughing so hard I was crying until I got IN the car.hahahahahaha It was so one of those here your sign moments.....

NEWS ON THE CAMERA FRONT

Thank you so much for all your input. I have an idea of what I am going to want. I messed around with my camera for a bit and rigged something so its at least temporarily working. The problem is in the SD card. Its not reading it even when its in the camera. I jammed something between the the door and card and for some odd reason its working. But I doubt for long..

I dont know how the heck I keep breaking my camera's. I baby them.My kids always say if you want something brand new looking just get moms phone or camera. So I cant understand why they break. I must be bad at picking them. Lol...........At least now I can get more pictures until this one breaks again!!

I just have one more thing to say

GO PACKERS!!!!!!!!!

Question for you......

2011-01-20T19:38:00.000-08:00

I have now killed about the gazillionth camera. SO I am going to have to purchase another. I do not understand camera websites and have been stalking them all tonight. So before I go to town tomorrow do any of you have a good recommendation for a good point and shoot?

Chicken Lovin Hot Mama's

2011-01-20T17:10:00.000-08:00

Really do you think I could pass this up????Only 1 week sign up so if you are interested head on over to Vals Hot Mama Apron swap page!

We have a start :)

2011-01-19T18:04:00.000-08:00

I have been working my little fingers to the bone! Well not really. In reality I have had an adult beverage at hand and a heck a lot of chocolate! It has als helped that WH was out of town for a week leaving me with plenty of free time after Little A was in bed. YAY for free time!

Each flimsy ( heheh I just love that word! Thank you Randi!) I was actually able to personalise to each person. Shocking that I had the fabric to do that huh.Lol The first one is for a John Wayne fan..

I ordered the pictures off of EBAY and only had to purchase 1 yard of fabric for this!
This is for a Mouse lover. I had to purchase 1/2 yd for this one.
Recognize the blocks? Did not have to buy a single piece for this flimsy!
Bel is back on the job as quilt inspector. This one is all about the tea pots and tea cups. I had to purchase 1/2 yd for this one.

I am having SO MUCH fun with this challenge. I feel such a sense of accomplishment as I finish each one. The best part is that each person that receives them will see that they are made just for them. AND at the end of all this I will have a cleaner quilt studio! Its a win win!

Have you challenged yourself this year? I would love to hear about it.

Stash Busting!

2011-01-18T18:28:00.000-08:00

So my 16 stash busting quilts have morphed! Not a big surprise with me! These are the first 3. I had a gift to send off to a friend when I remembered she had 3 little guys who are obsessed with Monster trucks. I picked up 3 t shirts and whipped these up to stick in the box. Easy Peasy and I know they will be loved.

I mean Bel loves them! She has decided she is the official quilt inspector.

Total yards used was about 2. I had to purchase the backings but I am not counting those as they were pre printed Monster truck panels, and I even used left overs of batting! I am loving this stash busting challenge!

Can You Say Spoiled?

2011-01-17T16:03:00.000-08:00

What a great surprise week I had this week!!! WH and I celebrated our 23rd anniversary last week. We had a great week. He spoiled me with dinner out to a great restaurant and a whole day to do nothing. Let me tell you we did nothing too! Can you ask for a great gift? He also slipped a beautiful Amethyst ring in there but I still have to get a picture of that. I got him some binoculars so he can stalk all the wildlife here a little better.

But then I get some awesome presents in the mail! Firstmy favorite customer sent me these goodies. A wonderful little table runner that I am so in love with and some guest dish cloths. They are so sweet! I love this lady. Se pays me to quilt for her AND spoils me rotten!
Then I get this box from Jody. WOWZERS! I cannot even explain how much I love these gifts. So meaningful too. She knows me very well.

The sweetest turtle purse charm. Its already on my purse. I LOVE it! A really really neat pot holder ( that will NEVER be used as a pot holder) made by a group to benefit foster children on the Kenai Peninsula. She knows this is near and dear to my heart. Little A was one of those kids a few short years back.

The show stopper though. The one thing I have been drooling over but just not gotten for myself is a hand welded flower cone holder for my sewing machine.I can finally pitch that ugly black thing from Joannes! I LOVE it!!!

Thank you so much KT and Jody! You gals are the bestest!

BTW I have finished 3 tops of the 16 stash quilts with 2 more soon to follow. I have pictures but I wanted to post this first. Soon though!

Resolutions

2011-01-01T17:56:00.000-08:00

res·o·lu·tion

1. The state or quality of being resolute; firm determination.

2. A resolving to do something.

3. A course of action determined or decided on.

I have never been a "New Years" resolution person. I make and set goals all year long. I do however use Jan 1 as one of the pivotal moments that I reflect on what I have accomplished.

This last year has been a year of sadness for me and for my family. So many things that I haven't even discussed here. As far as Goals/Resolutions go tho I think it has also been a successful year. Personally and also business wise I feel we are so much more ahead then we were a year ago.

I still havent completely set my business up here. I have a few customers from Alaska (thank HEAVENS they are understanding and patient). I do have a couple of people here that are making noises about bringing me quilts. Honestly......I will take it if it comes or not. I am so happy having time for my own things. I am VERY happy to have outside time in the summer. (I know this still shocks a few of you.YES I love to go outside now!)

I have set a goal for myself. I still have the goal of completing my UFOs while not adding to them. That I have a feeling will be long running. My new goal however is going to be a tough one. I want to put a large dent in my stash. What you dont know is that I have 8 dressers of stash.I am not ashamed of that.hahahah. It was a lot of hard work accumulating all that material!

No I am not counting up all the yardage as some have done. I bow in respect to those that do! But I will count what I have used. Since I made this goal last week I took on a challenge. To make 16 quilts for 16 very special people. I have completed two in the last week using about 3 yards of material. I only had to purchase 1 yard to fill in the gaps so far. Now I only have 14 to go. I really want to pull as much of this from my stash as possible. I will let you know how it goes! Pictures will follow soon. :)

Stitchin Along

2010-12-27T18:10:00.000-08:00

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!

Eggs Bennedict

2010-12-21T19:18:00.000-08:00

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?

Bad Mommy

2010-12-17T16:14:00.000-08:00

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.

A Little Quilty Goodness

2010-12-16T08:33:00.000-08:00

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!

Are You Still With Me?

2010-12-14T19:05:00.000-08:00

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 more pics to come. Evidently I shouldnt of taken it for granted that my new laptop came with a built in card reader. So I have to go buy one. I kyped these from one of my girls. Right now I am sitting in a Miami hotel room. WH had to pop down here after the cruise to put a showing in at some sort of work related show.

I had been hoping for some more sun before we headed home. WHo knew it would be just as cold here as it is in ND!!!!!! Oh well I had to waste some time shopping. Bummer huh....We fly home tomorrow. I promise to be better now. I even have some quilt content for you! (Pick yourselves up off the floor I REALLY do)

im not sure

2010-11-11T08:16:00.000-08:00

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.

2010-11-10T16:59:00.003-08:00

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2010-11-10T16:59:00.001-08:00

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2010-11-04T11:33:00.001-07:00

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

My Quest

2010-11-02T21:07:00.000-07:00

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 that the pain will just stop! I think I will just stick to walking.............

On a brighter note, I crawled (and yes I literally crawled) down to the studio and have been getting a lot done! Pictures to follow this week if I can find the strength to pick up the camera......

Hunting Season!

2010-10-31T19:21:00.001-07:00

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!

What Does A Packers Fan

2010-10-30T20:04:00.000-07:00

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 mold and firm up.

I put the Pumpernickle bread in the food processor and added the melted butter until I could make it form a shape.Put saran wrap into the mold making sure you pat the wrinkles out when you pat the bread mixture in into the mold .Then I poured the cheese in. After it set up ( a few hours) I flipped the mold and walla! The perfect cheese football. Pipe a little more cream cheese onto the top for effect and you are done!

BTW I am not sure how I figured out how to upload this picture. I am already having a panic attack thinking about the pictures I want to upload tomorrow. Sigh.

I also want to thank you all for the hugs and warm wishes over my dad. He is hanging in there. Baby steps is all we can ask for.

Bare With Me

2010-10-28T08:07:00.000-07:00

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.

Very Tired

2010-10-22T20:14:00.000-07:00

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 back. I spent two good weeks with him. I will cherish those days. He didnt know who i was when I left. I wish to forget those days.

For heavens sake my friends GET your blood pressure checked and TAKE care of yourselves! My dads BP was so high it lead to Artillary Fibrillation ( I am sure I spelled that wrong) which lead to strokes and a nightmare I cant explain. Your families need you. I got mine checked when I got home and found its extremely high. While it is probably stress its something I will now monitor as this could be genetic.

Distraction

2010-10-03T20:56:00.000-07:00

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 will be gone but for right now a couple weeks. I will miss yall! I will check in if I can.

Randomness

2010-09-28T21:23:00.000-07:00

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 ashamed to admit I havent quilted that thing yet.I even started a fun market bag that I am excited to finish tomorrow.

I must say eating your frog right away really works! Tomorrow I have errands to run(my frog again) and then home to play some more. So what frogs do you have to eat?

Baking day!

2010-09-22T21:25:00.000-07:00

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. He loves apple pie. Personally I hate apple pie but oh well. So I got busy.

If yall have never checked out the pioneer woman and her recipies you need to fix that and go STRAIGHT there! She has this apple pie that just looked amazing. Complete with a crumble caramel topping. Since I am not a lover of two crust pies I decided to go with that one.
I was out of caramel though so found a quick recipie online to make it. Boil a can of sweet condensed milk for about 2 to 2.5 hours. Keep it covered in water though or you could have it exploding on you.

I followed the recipie and boy did they look pretty.

Not pretty enough. So I decided they needed a touch of fall. I carefully molded little leafs,acorns, and pumpkins out of left over dough.....

NOT!!!! I used cutters from Williams Sonoma ( I looooooooooooooove WS)

When everthing was all baked I was very happy with the results! My friends were happy with their pie too.Ü. If I cheered them up just a little then it was worth giving up a sewing day. I made extra so WH and the kiddos could try it too.

My Journey Back

2010-09-21T19:22:00.000-07:00

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 purse and onto the counter! Yeah thats what happened.

Doesnt she look guilty?

2010-09-20T22:03:00.000-07:00

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!

We Interrupt

2010-09-19T19:53:00.000-07:00

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

Hey Crazy Lady!!!

2010-09-17T18:49:00.000-07:00

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 day in the studio. OMG I have missed it sooooooooooooo much! I was so twitterpated to have a summer. I still dont regret taking advantage of the sun. But wow I missed Gracie and my fabric! I got 2.5 customer quilts done, an apron cut out, and a whole heck of a lot of playing! In the words of my Jan "GO ME!!!!"

BTW Thank you for being my friends and hanging in their with me!

Tennessee

2010-09-16T16:59:00.000-07:00

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 Martini buddy we loaded up the camper and took off. I am so happy we did. All of my problems which are still there are so dealable. So incignificant compared to what they are going through. How sad and broken they are. Yet how strong and beautiful.They are coping the best they can. We cried a lot, got mad a lot, and still we tried to remember the good things we remembered about him. There were so many good memories. Having to leave to come back home was not easy and it came way too fast. We have already made plans to meet up again.

Bel is a traveling dog!

This wonderful store was just down the street from M's.

I have fallen in love with Tennessee.

My beautiful Martini buddies (minus 1) and our newest member Ms mom.

I am so thankful to have them in my life. I can only hope that they found some comfort from our visit. It helped me so much to put my life back in perspective and remember that its not all about me. I love these ladies.

House Update

2010-08-30T19:25:00.001-07:00

We were not planning on working on the house for awhile more. But WH gave me a HUGE present! This was the back gazebo. He knew how much I hated it. I mean how much I REALLY hated it. Seriously who would do this? The hot tub never stayed clean and it was just plain tacky and ugly. We still have some staining and finishing work to do but Tada!

So much better dont you think? It is also insulated and finished on the inside. Just a few lights and we are ready for fall hot tub parties. I am so excited about this and let me tell you it is needed. I have been a whole year without my bath tub. I used my jacuzzi about once a week. I loved that thing. We havent had a bath tub here yet. Someday we will but..........yeah......

Ok just cuz I couldnt resist. Bel says Hi!

Amida still isnt impressed.Lol

Meet Bel

2010-08-24T20:49:00.000-07:00

So here I go disapearing on yall again. We have had company. MIL has been here to give the place the once over. She had been told ALL sorts of horible things about North Dakota. So WH felt it was his personal responsibility to show her the real North Dakota. Of course that meant a ton of shopping along the way! Needless to say she went home thinking we live in a pretty neat place!

So I bet you are wondering who Bel is..........She is my new puppy! A shitzu yorkie mix. She weighs about 3 pounds and should probably get to be about 7/8 pounds. She is a lot smaller then Amida, oldest daughters dog. Here she is playing tag with Amida. She never did realise that Amida wasnt playing. She just didnt care actually.Lol. She runs so fast through the house that she cant get herself stopped. Lol. She hits quite a few walls and table legs.

Here she is before her bath. Pretty scruffy looking. Oldest daughter will be moving to Germany in Nov/Dec. She will be taking Amida with her. I have been having a VERY hard time with this. So Bel is here to distract me. So far she is keeping me pretty busy. I had forgotten how much I diliked potty training........

Chicken Day

2010-08-14T20:06:00.000-07:00

The time had come for butchering the chickens. They were so big that when I fed them they wouldnt even stand to eat. They would just lay and eat. I was getting very worried. If we waited any longer they would start to have heart attacks. Their little legs couldnt hold up their body weight.

The white ones were done growing. Sadly we had to butcher two of my other chickens also. The place where I bought my hens from didnt do a very good job sexing them and I got 3 roosters. So I watched to see which one was more dominent and the other two had to go. I wasnt going to let them get to the point of fighting and killing each other.

A couple friends came over and in less then two hours the job was done and the chickens were in the freezer. We skinned and didnt mess with the plucking. MUCH easier let me tell you. We dont eat the skin anyways. Skater boy was disgusted by the whole thing. He helped with one chicken then called his job done.Lol WH thankfully had done this all before. It really didnt bother me as much as I thought it would. I guess its because I always knew they would be our meat chickens. I kept the guys supplied with liquid refreshment and did the wrapping.

Its funny now that the others are gone I am going through a LOT less food and water. I am giving lots of table scraps and my layers have bulked right up. My rooster is a crack up. He is all puffed up with pride and has just this week started crowing. Of course its a rather pathetic crow. As WH puts it it somewhat sounds like a cat being skinned. Lets hope he gets it together so he can impress his little harem of girls!

North Dakota Living

2010-08-12T19:02:00.001-07:00

I am turning into a farmgirl! I am LOVING every minute of it too! Well I still dont like getting dirty. BUT I do love the results from the hard work.

I also am finding some pleasure in the solitude in gardening. Everyone leaves me alone when I am out there. Too many times of coming out to bug me and I put them to work! Ü

The results are so very worth the effort. Strawberry rhubarb custard pie. mmmmmmmmmmmm

Pickled green beans and pickles. I also put away a few jars of rhubarb for winter pies. (pantry isnt done yet and yes that is my alcohol shelf underneath.Lol)

I havent been in the sewing room for awhile. How do you quilt when it is 90+ outside and I still feel the need to unthaw. We have started work on the house again. We are finishing the main bathroom. WH's mom will be here tomorrow for a week and an extra bathroom will come in very handy.Lol

Rough Road

2010-07-17T19:22:00.001-07:00

Well all my good intentions of keeping up with the blog this summer flew out the window!

I have been boring. I really just havent been up to it. We have had some family stuff to deal with. Nothing that I can really talk about. Just something to deal with.

Just as I was feeling I had my head above the water I get the phone call. You know the one you always fear is going to happen but hope it doesnt. My dad has been down for some time. Just not doing good. He has his good days and then bad ones. Hard to understand why. Well it looks like he has Parkinsons disease.

I dont know much about it as I havent done a lot of research yet but evidently its what my grandfather (his father that I never knew) died of, and as my mother tells me it answers so many of their questions.

So I am going to try to pull myself up by the bootstraps and deal with this all. Please be patient as i have a few good days and then I dont. I will get better I promise and next post I also promise pictures......

Once Again

2010-06-30T19:49:00.000-07:00

I have misplaced the camera....Stupid camera.You dont really want a picture of what I am doing right now though. Its almost 10at night and its 87 out. Does that tell you how hot it was today? So I am laying on my bed after my 5th shower trying to cool off and trying to convince myself that Iam in the bahamas.....Yeah not so much working for me with kids yelling in the background.

Today was NOT a great day. Skater boys dog is a chocolate lab.Did Iever tell you that? WELL WH decides yesterday that he wants the coop moved. Do you see where this is going? Stupid mutt with built in retriever instincts somehow gets 3 of my layers! We managed to rescue one before it was gone but we are babying it. I was heartsick. Ihad just about had them not scared of me now they are all jittery again. Not only that but they were 3 months away from laying. I did manage to find 4 Aracondas (?) they lay the blue eggs. But they are only a week old. So I am at the beginning with those. Arghhhhhhhhh.

OkI am going to goback to laying here and try to REALLY visualise the bahamas! camping this weekend and next .hehehehe

Sewing!! I really have been!

2010-06-22T19:26:00.000-07:00

My latest swap package Ü. These make me so happy. Instant gratifications.Lol. Almost ready to mail off. Just wiaitng on some sequined cherries for the pocket.YAY!

Easy tile coasters.

Super easy towels. Just trim applied to kitchen towels picked up from Wally world.

Ok this isnt from my sewing room. We just discovered these gorgeous flowers in our backyard. I am pretty sure I found some tiger lilies too! I just need to figure out how to prune some bushes that are trying to choke out the flowers.

Chicken Little

2010-06-18T14:43:00.001-07:00

Yup I did it. We have acquired chickens! Well right now they are more just these little tiny balls of fluff. In ALL honesty this is what WH gets for leaving me unsupervised again. He really should know better.

It all started with some internet research on how to get rid of ticks. That led to a delightful conversation with a gentleman at the local feed store. (I just LOVE feed stores.All sorts of natural goodness and baby animals)Anyways, after we had established that I really am a city girl with some VERY dumb questions we (meaning I ) decided that guinea hens were needed. I ordered 6. These 6 resulted in a phone call to my little builder boys for a chicken coop. I mean they need a home right? From there the direction we went was 6 more chickens. Egg layers. Evidently one of my builder boys comes from a long line of chicken breeding/raising geniuses! It so happens that he is on his way to visit one of these geniuses and they are sending 6 bionic cold weather loving,tick addicted super egg laying chickens home for me! Yeah really need that coop now! So no more little just for summer coop, now we are talking delux insulated condo!

Where do you go from there? Well let me tell you! You get butchering chickens because well why not! This results in an addition to the chicken run with me running out for more chicken wire. This wonderful book, plans for building my own waterers and feeders, and a baby raising cage complete with heat lamp!

And yes I accomplished this all this last week! Its really a good thing WH is coming home Sunday cuz I am thinking cow! Chai is under the belief that I have brought her home some wonderful little snacks.

Arent they cute? Well just think of them as dinner! Thats what I am doing it helps.

The Garden i am TRYING to love!

2010-06-14T20:37:00.001-07:00

First though I want to say another thank you to Barb for my wonderful Apron and goodies from Vals Hot Mama Swap! Check out the links for so much eye candy Ü

Ok this garben thing........I am trying Jan I really am! I would like to know though how WHs and my garden has become ALL my work! over four hours of weeding yesterday! I am still not finding the love or joy in this dirty,bug infested hobby.Sigh. Maybe I should try a margarita with it? I can tell you my children find great humor in my "get up"......Someday I may share a picture of me in my big blue floppy hat,sunglasses,apron,and gardening gloves. Evidently I am quite a sight!

This was pre weeding. I need to get a better picture but I was sooooooooo tired I crashed. So far though I know the peas,corn,lettuce, and onions are doing great! The rest I am not sure. If it comes up in a row I weed it. I may have rows of weeds. Oh well.

Like I said this was preweeded. It looks great now. No weeds! WH had BETTER be suitably impressed when he gets back from Alaska. No worries though I HAVE quite the surprise project going on! Paybacks????? On Wed I will clue you in with pictures Ü (I wish I could make that grin more wicked looking)

Disney Day 2,3,and 4

2010-06-13T18:43:00.001-07:00

Our second day out was all about Animal kingdom and Hollywood studios. Animal kingdom first to see Lion King and the animals. WOW!!! I was very impressed!We did hit a ride really quick ÜOk well maybe two..........But quickly.We have to scope out Star wars signing spots for big hair!Day 3 we actually went over to Universal Studios. I HAD to meet thing 1 and thing 2.....As you can see THIS was the highlight of my day.....Have you ever vacationed with NON coffee drinkers? Its rough let me tell you!Day 4 brought about the CANKLES!!!!! I was miserable!. I did hobble around enough to get pictures with Star wars characters. More to take them for my buddy Big hair.Lol....

I hobbled through magic kingdom, Epcot and back to Hollywood studios. All in all I would say it was a smashing success. Would I go back? In a heartbeat!

I know I dissapeared on yall.Sorry. I have not experienced summer in like YEARS! This is all to knew to me.Lol. I have so much to share though. The garden, the chickens, a camping trip, and oh yeah the garden!!!

Disney World Day 1!

2010-05-26T16:57:00.000-07:00

I have decided that I am going to retire to Disney World! I am SO totally serious!!! I am a DW junkie and i did not get enough this trip!

We started off our day pretty early. It could of been worse though. Our 4th mouskateer had to start out at 3 a.m. Her hubby works for an airline so she gets free tickets as long as she flies stand by. I think I liked my under a hundred doller cheapo be to the airport by 8 tickets!Once in Florida we had to find our Magic Bus. It was magic too. It took us to a wonderful place ÜSee How happy it makes us?Our Hotel for the next few days. I would give this place a thumbs up.Where do you go first thing after checking in? Downtown Disney to the Rainforest Cafe of course! Its a long standing tradition for our family when we go to the Rainforest Cafe to share this desert. So we definitely HAD to keep tradition going. Then we had to go shopping! Here is my poor sleep deprived friend in her alter ego Biker Big hair! (We lovingly call her big hair.I dont think I need to explain why.Her big hair actually came in handy when we lost track of her in the crowds.)

Hmmmm Do you think WH would buy me one?

After trying on a few hats we decided to call it a night. We have a loooooooooooong day ahead of us! Our mission tomorrow is to scout out ALL the Star Wars signing spots for Big Hair. She is a Darth Vader stalker.

Marshmallow goodness Ü

Baby Shower Success

2010-05-25T08:00:00.001-07:00

Now that I am back from Disney World I can update my blog! The baby shower was wonderful. The new mom and dad were very very happy and received a ton of wonderful goodies to help them out. At one point we know there were over 80 people here. The weather was perfect and we fired up the barbecue and margarita machine!I ran out of time so WH helped me decorate cookies!I thought he did a wonderful job Ü

Uncle was very pleased with his surprise. He carried it around all night.It was a hit. Although we may need to remind him the bib is for his niece! He kinda liked it.Lol

One of the guests brought this. its a little flower bot painted pink. On top is a styrofoam ball also painted pink. Add a beautiful ribbon and Walah and beautiful lollipop holder. I WILL be stealing this idea!

We put surprises in the punch.Lol

The very next morning my girls and I took off for Florida! I cant wait to share pictures. Now though I need to get out of bed and accomplish....something....not sure what...but something.....

Baby Shower Bliss Part Three or

2010-05-15T20:09:00.000-07:00

I AM SO EXHAUSTED I could just colapse!..Its a happy tired though.

It was almost 80 here today.( Iam NOT trying to rub it in Jody!) So I fired up Jimmy ( think margarittaville) and started baking cookies. I actually tried this yesterday with no success. WH and I figured out my cookie deficiancy though. I dont have the patience. Cookies need patience. So I woke up today and decided to give it another shot! After all I have these cute cookie cutters I need to use.

6 batches later I have 4 ready to frost and I am calling it good!

In the meantime these whirling dirvishes whipped into my house and when they left my house was all girly decorated! Amazing these friends of mine are! Pictures tomorrow. TOnight I am putting my feet up, enjoying a refreshing drink, and then going to sleep.....

Have I ever mentioned how much I love parties? Ü

Baby Shower Bliss Part Two!

2010-05-12T19:03:00.001-07:00

Before I go any further into Baby Shower Bliss...Does ANYONE know where YAYA is? Did any of you read YAYAs blog? She has disapearred and I have to say I am a little worried. I dont need details.Just yeah she is ok.That would work for me. I MISS you and your wonderful blog Yaya!

OK now, Day 2! Today my list included perfecting mini carmel apples! This was actually quite a day in experimenting.

It started with a trip to Wally world. I was on the search for sucker sticks...check.Apples....check.....sprinkles and nuts....check. Carmels.............................No carmels. I politely ask a sales lady.In which I get this response....Oh wait make sure you picture woman my age trying to look like she is 18. Wearing WAY to much make up, very tight clothing,overly bleached hair, and a wad of gum a ball player would be proud of......Yeah...o.k. she says " you want what? right.You DO know this is the wrong time of year for that.Thats a fall thing.Obviously if you didnt see them where you looked then we DONT have them!"

It took the will of god not to smack her. So I picked up a candy I thought might work...Come home and nope didnt work. So this means another trip to town and another grocery store. Success! Obviously tramp er I mean the sales lady from Wally world needs to get out more.

So home we go. Next round we failed yet again. Carmels melted right but we needed to add less water. Cut back on what the package says. We made a few more mistakes but in the end we had PERFECT mini carmel apples. I followed this tutorial I kyped off the net.

Pretty self explanitory with the pictures but follow the link if you want it in written form.Ü..The other little lessons I learned was that you have to cover the whole apple or the carmel slips off the part with no skin. It has to have something to stick too. Also I bought those little muffin cupcake liners. After I rolled the apple in caramel and then dipped it into sprinkles (or nuts etc.) I put it into a little cupcake cup and into a mini muffin tin. If any caramel did melt off it had no where to pool.It actually looked pretty cool and after being chilled for an hour it peeled right off the paper. YUMMY!

Ok so tomorrow I am venturing into the realm of sugar cookies! After I clean house of course. I have a dozen onsie cookies and baby bottle cookies to make and I havent settled on to the perfect dough yet. Any ideas? and favorites?

Baby Shower Bliss

2010-05-11T18:24:00.000-07:00

Is there anything better then planning a party? Seriously? I am enjoying this more then I can say. So much that I want to tackle the next pregnant person and beg her to let me give her shower......

Well maybe NOT physically tackle!

Thank you M&S for the honor of lettin gme do this!