The New and Improved 2008 Me!

Having just said in yesterday's post that I was only going to make quilts I really, really, really like, what did I do today? I signed up for a BOM class that starts January 14th! Rather impulsive maybe? Well, actually, it's not really. This is a quilt I've been looking at on the quilt shop wall for the past several months and I've blogged about it before. It's one of those that fits into the "really cute Christmas quilt" category. I'll post another photo of it in case you missed it last time--it's called Christmas List. And yes, Sharon, as a matter of fact, I DID steal the photo off your blog! Silly Sharon! It's one of Nancy No-Blog's quilts that Sharon coincidentally showed within days of my deciding I wanted to sign up to make the quilt, and I had no photo so I stole hers. Last time I posted the photo, Sharon couldn't figure out why the background looked so much like HER house! That was when I found out that Sharon often looks at our photos before she reads what we have to say!

And what do I have planned for the last few days of 2007? Did I hear you ask me that? Or was that the voices in my head again? Tomorrow (Saturday), in honor of my weekly Day of Beauty routine, I might pluck a few stray eyebrow hairs, including the ones that have migrated down to my chin. After all, I'd really like to glide the new year looking my fabulous best! In fact, I might even clip my toe nails! And when I get tired of all that pampering, I'll wander into the Sweat Shop and work on the quilt I'm making for my brother and his wife for Christmas. Yes, I DO know that I'm late--I'm very, very late! But we won't be getting together with them for a few more weeks, so I hope to have it completed in time. Here's the pattern I'm using, and I'm planning to use Kansas Troubles fabrics from my stash.

I'll post a few photos of blocks as I go along, once I figure out what I'm doing.

And sometime this long, holiday weekend, I'll be making homemade tamales. When I get around to that, I'll post a few photos, give you the recipe, and tell you the story about why I make tamales every year. Right now, though, I'm masa-challenged. Once again, for the second year in a row, my local, neighborhood Safeway is not carrying masa flour (perhaps in an effort to curb illegal immigration?! If there's no masa, they won't come?!). That means I'm going to have to go to the immense trouble of sending my husband out on a masa hunt. Geez it's hard on me when I have to do that! He's actually a good sport about it--he knows that somewhere at the end of the hunt, there will be the most delicious tamales on Earth! And really, you absolutely have NOT had good tamales unless you've had homemade--they're nothing like what you get frozen in the grocery store or even in the Mexican restaurants. Homemade tamales are seriously TO DIE FOR--literally and figuratively! They aren't necessarily the heart-healthiest thing in the world, but we're still in that not-quite-serious-about-what-we-eat-as-long-as-it-tastes-good season. Give us another week or two and we'll forsake tamales and chocolate and whatever else might have snuck home in my grocery cart the last couple weeks, but for now, we'll eat tamales and the heck with the consequences! Ole and cha-cha-cha!