Saturday, December 30, 2006

poor me

sick
It may be the flu.
To make matters worse, I think David is next.

Thursday, December 28, 2006

the good....

the good
the bad.....
the bad
and the ugly.......
the ugly
I know, it's mean to make fun of gifts but honestly! No one has ever seen me or David ever drink whiskey, the applique scarves, sequin sweater and fuzzy-shiny pj's were given to the 2 big daughters who are very much into trendy fashions (Abercrombie, Holister, etc.) and would need to be drunk on that whiskey to ever wear them and then there's Garfield Chia, 'nuff said.
Julia and I were very fortunate to get the lovely Vera Bradley bags, thanks Aunt Debbie!

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Moving on

Ho Ho Merry!
Julia 6:00 am
Santa brought Julia an American Girl doll and a tent for it
Tent for American Girl Doll
and look who wants to camp!
Leo enjoys it more.
Can I take the tree down now? Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas and for all the right reasons but I am so done with it (and every other holiday) right after it's done. Get those cookies away from me and put all the decorations back in the attic! Maybe because my house is so small for us and clutters so easily or maybe because I have ants in my pants all the time, whatever the reason, I'm done. I am happy to just have winter now even though the temperature has barely gotten below 50 degrees. I want to make soup, bake breads and sew....ahhhh, that makes me happy. I need to clean up this place and buy some groceries; David's daughter Christina and her boyfriend are coming here for a week. I have no idea where everyone will sit for dinner, my kitchen barely seats us 5, maybe we'll eat in shifts or I'll stand.... I dunno!

Saturday, December 23, 2006

mindless rambling ahead...

Hello all. The kids are all sick with coughs, sore throats and sniffles. I have a little stomach bug thing going on, along with a stiff neck...... but I'm still excited about Christmas in two days!
I took my little tree home from work yesterday. Don't you just love how tacky this is??
I love this!
It was a Target Dollar Spot special and it makes me so happy.
Another thing that made me happy yesterday was finding a new quilt shop that I never knew existed. I was dropping something off to a client and stumbled upon it. I picked up these little goodies.
pink fabric therapy
greens
So, today I am cleaning up my sewing table so that I can get all of my craft crap out of my bedroom (I found the nurse buttons Deb!) and guess what I found out? Did you know that if you send $4.00 and 3 Wright's Rick Rack labels to Wright's they will send you a generous bag of scraps??? Can you even believe that this is true?? Click here for the address. OK, I'm off to the mailbox, I'm gonna get me a generous bag of rick rack scraps!
ric-rac news!

Thursday, December 21, 2006

3 more days!

I had a good time yesterday and managed to spend $478 in many stores within 3 hours. WHEW! I am exhausted. Malling is hard work, I tell ya.I bought more gifts and spent $100 on underwear and bras for myself, I would never do that with my own money....seriously you wouldn't believe how tattered my underwear are!
Did you ever have a favorite bra and the underwire pokes out and keeps stabbing you in the armpit or neck? This seems to happen to every bra I own, no matter the cost or brand! Well, I decided I wasn't going to take it anymore and got out my glue gun. I've tried sewing the holes shut but that wire keeps poking out, so now I put a blob of hot glue over the hole and no more stabbing. The glue only holds up for 3 or 4 washings but it's easy enough to re-do. It's not pretty but it works.
Where was I?
Oh, it's almost Christmas and I'm calm now.... life is good. I'll leave you with kid pictures. This was the best of the 500 that I took. We've got to work on this.
122006 020
122006 017

fa la la la la......

....... la la la
OK, I'm on track for Christmas now. That quilt was killing me! I baked some cupcakes for a class party:
122106 001
122106 004
cute, eh?
I put together a few gift buckets for the popular 13 year old to give to her friends:
122106 005 122106 006
These were cheap and fun; a cute bucket from Target's dollar spot, garland, a jumbo candy bar, a pack of microwave popcorn and a movie rental from Blockbuster- all for around $7.00.

Today is very exciting! I love my job!! I have been sitting on this office secret for weeks now and it was making me crazy. Being the office manager, I had to be in on the secret but I couldn't tell. Today is our office party...with a twist. We (24 of us) are meeting at a diner at 8:30 where we will have breakfast and everyone will be confused and more than a little pissed off thinking that this is the party. The boss will then hand out a very generous gift card to a big mall about 30 miles away. We will have until 1:30 to spend all of it before we meet for lunch at a mall restaurant. The boss will be randomly handing out money if he spots you in the mall and at lunch there will be prizes for the single largest purchase, the most receipts, etc. etc. and then we get to go home. No work today!
I love my job!

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Don't get too excited.

Carolyn's quilt is done. I'm afraid that there was too much hype about it and you may be disappointed. Oh, it's a nice quilt but not my best quilt.
Carolyn's quilt
Carolyn is my eldest niece and she is graduating from nursing school tomorrow (I had time to spare!). My sister suggested that we make her a quilt as a gift- we means that she funded the effort I constructed it.
Carolyn's quilt
At first I wanted to make a novelty type quilt but I couldn't find any fabric that I loved. Then I saw this quilt and loved it (you'll need to scroll down), but I thought that I should move past simple patchwork squares. What the hell was I thinking? I could have been done with this 2 weeks ago if I only stopped thinking.
Carolyn's quilt
I remembered how much I loved this pattern and thought it would look nice in the other colors. I had to adjust the size because Carolyn doesn't need a crip size quilt...... that meant that there would be math..... I hate math but I worked it out. I took 2 days off from work this week to get my house cleaned and take care of last minute shopping and baking, um that didn't happen.
So here it is, a nice enough quilt made with lots of love:

Monday, December 18, 2006

trouble

I always hate signing quilts when they are done because I really just want them to be gone when they are done. So, I made this applique patch ahead of time. Notice the yellow glow of lamp light, it's called pre-dawn lamp glow, people. Was anyone else sewing at 4:00 am?
121806
The red cross is to symbolize Carolyn's nursing school graduation. It's not my best embroidery work but it is what it is at this point. I always use a pen to write underneath but this time the ink ran all over the place when it got wet....don't ask.... I had to scrub it out and the lettering became a little wonky.
There's more.
I was moving right along with the quilt yesterday and sat at the machine to quilt it and the freakin' thing kept bunching up on the back. I'm pretty sure my seam ripper broke from overuse. I think I hate my machine. I decided to hand quilt this thing with huge straight line stitching, I will call it primitive and charming, it will be lovely. David was my needle threader. He kept 5 needles threaded at all times while watching football, it really saved me lots of time.

stay tuned for updates.

Saturday, December 16, 2006

mojo-busting $%#$()*!@^ bobbin!


There's nothing like an empty bobbin to ruin your quilting mojo over, and over, and over again. Sheesh, I've filled this bobbin a lot and it annoys me every single time. If I ever get finished sewing for Christmas I swear I will fill dozens of them or better yet buy those already loaded bobbins that they sell...yep, that's what I'm doing.... *SIGH*

I've been sewing since dawn. Really. Look at the funny looking pink glow in this picture.

That's the pink glow of dawn, people! Mind you, I have had 4,205 interruptions and I did stop to eat lunch, but I am not nearly done. I just want to cry. Even Gilbert is doubting that I will ever finish or change his litter box, for that matter.


*SIGH* I wonder what's for dinner tonight.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

I Love Mail!

I treated myself to a few presents, I could hardly help it! I can't wait to make these for Jacob for his birthday
Spaceboy & Robot
I may have to put some wheels on the robot for mr. cutie boy to be interested in him! UPS just delivered my box of goodies from Barnes And Noble; mostly gifts for other people but I snuck this in for me
The Apron Book
I'm not sure why I needed this but I'll figure it out. Speaking of UPS, these little blankets are for twin sons of my UPS driver.
twin boy blankets
I work so close to home that he happens to have my house and office on his route. He's a super nice guy and is always talking about his 3 year old sons who are crazy about the Cars movie. These blankets are just fleece backed, top stitched and hand tied..... simple!
My niece's quilt is coming along nicely, I think I'll make it!

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

serenity now

I have no business being on the computer right now but I have a few minutes while chicken is thawing. I have 8 days to finish my niece's quilt; it's her gift for graduating nursing school.....I have it cut and um, 2% of the top sewn. Yeah, I'm stressing out. I think extracurricular activities should be banned during December! Every day it's dance, basketball, cheer leading, clubs, parties and school concerts...when are moms supposed to get stuff done??
At least I have my bumble.
corrigated garland and my Bumble
C'mon! You know... the Abominable snow guy from Rudolph? The one who's job it was to put the star on the tree? Yeah, him.
David is my Bumble.
He tries.
And he can reach all the tall stuff.
OK, the chicken is thawed whether it thinks so or not.

Sunday, December 10, 2006

an oldie but a goodie

I was looking through my cedar chest for an extra blanket; it went from 60 degrees to 10 degrees over night..... anyway, I thought I would show this off-
an old gift from my sister
My sister made it over 20 years ago and I just love it. It looks "loved" now and shows a lot of wear so I haven't used it in a while. I took it out washed and dried it and decided to let it see light again. It gave me warm fuzzies all day yesterday, or maybe that was because of the little hangover from Friday night.
The party was at our friend's house around the corner so we don't take the car......let's just say that the bartender and I were good friends by the end of the night. It's always a great party and we have a blast singing at the piano. Pinot Grigio does wonders for my voice!
"P" received her swap package yesterday, here's a few things I sent her:
december swap december swap december swap december swap

Friday, December 08, 2006

December swap goodies!

I barely took my coat off to open up my box of goodies from my bestest swap friend "P".
Everything was packed in this super-cute tote dec. swap 001
Here's what was inside dec. swap 002
Look at the great Christmas/Winter fabrics
dec. swap 003
and a special bag of "doodads" loaded with soooo many things, even things for my neglected dollhouse!
dec. swap 005
That's how "P" and I first met; the Ziploc Doodad Swap on Craftster.org. Good times, good times. We've been swapping ever since! Thanks so much, I love all of it!! You rock!!

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Remnant Bin Therapy

There's no time to make anything with this now but maybe next Christmas.....
renant bin therapy
No crafting news. *sigh*

We went to listen to a guest speaker at school last night; John Reardon, Raising Kids and Having Fun. He was very entertaining and full of a lot of good ideas. He said two things that will keep me laughing for a long time:
If you argue with a child it's like arguing with a drunk.
It takes 10 full days before a child will actually starve.

OK, I've got to go make lunches..... have a good day!

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

19 pounds of love

cutie boy Leo
Yep, he's 19 pounds now. It's hard to believe he fit in my hand when we got him. The vet didn't even say anything about it and he gained 3 lbs. since last year! Maybe he was more concerned with his infected tooth that I knew nothing about, apparently that's why he has bad breath.....I thought the bad breath was from eating cat food. *shrugs* I have to bring him to the kittly hospital in 2 weeks to have the tooth out. Poor Leo.
mom's sweater ornament
We've been keeping busy around here but managed to decorate the tree on Sunday. There's something on the calendar every night except Saturday, so hopefully we can put the rest of the decorations up then.
I'll be back with more crafty business soon, have a good week!

Sunday, December 03, 2006

reality check

Here I am, wallowing in my petty little miseries....... when life's harsh realities smack me in the face. Our school (it's a catholic school) does a great job in teaching the kids about charity and helping those less fortunate. In fact, I think I do a good job teaching my kids the same thing. So, how come I get all wrapped up in my little world of messy rooms, busy schedule and not enough money? While I've been so busy in my little world, my kids have been busy collecting things to fill stockings for the children at The boys and Girls Village. http://www.boysvill.org/section.cfm?sectionid=24 They have given up some of their own new and unopened toys that they haven't gotten around to playing with yet or that were double gifts. They have filled 4 stockings this weekend! Nice job, girls. I added to their efforts by sewing a few tissue covers this morning.
tissue holders for charity
See, it pays to hit the remnant bins and collect some fabrics that aren't your style!
Let's all step back, take a deep breath and stop and think how fortunate we are and possibly do a little something for someone else.

Saturday, December 02, 2006

warm wishes

It's safe to show pictures of these cards now, I'm sure that my sister got them.
handmade card handmade card
handmade card handmade card handmade card
I love making these. Scraps of fabric, paper and ribbons and a sewing machine and you're good to go. It does make a big mess while you're working but it's fun none the less.
Lots to do today in the way of housework and decorating......I'll be back tomorrow.

Friday, December 01, 2006

It's a fine line

"It's a fine line between kitschy and tacky. Clearly, this pincushion lives right on that line." That's what I wrote to my sister when I sent her this a few days ago.
pincushion
I found this fabric at my JoAnn's a few years back. I saw it and it screamed that I should have it. It has been sitting in my stash torturing me ever since. Oh sure, I was able to give an Ohio piece to "P" and a San Diego piece to "L" but I haven't made anything with it until now. You asked for a pincushion Deb, and here you have it!
pincushion
And what a happy accident that I had these matching pins!
pincushion
I whipped up the tissue holder and key fob for my neice who likes John Deere tractors.... hey you can take the girl out of the farm land but you can't take the farm land out of the girl.... erm, whatever, you know what I mean.
accessories
Damn Florida! I miss you guys!