Checking In!

Thanks again for all of your well wishes. I'm feeling much better today! Yesterday I still had a nagging headache and body aches but nothing a little ibuprofen couldn't fix--well, ibuprofen and sewing therapy anyway!

I've begun taking down some of the Christmas decorations. Or maybe I should say MY HUSBAND has begun taking down some of the Christmas decorations. He's really done a bit more than I have, spending the day yesterday watching football and taking down the large tree and packing everything away. I've done a little directing--like telling him which things around the house can be packed away. I DO like to leave a few things up for awhile--those things that fit into the Winter/Valentine's Day theme.

Speaking of the Winter/Valentine's Day theme, I've been hard at work on my heart quilt, but I think I'll surprise you with it when it's done. I might just finish the top today sometime, depending on what else comes up requiring my attention.

I think I've decided that instead of making the Awakenings quilt for my brother and his wife for Christmas this year, I'll save it until next year and instead make them a picnic tote this year. The one I made my son's girlfriend turned out pretty cute, and I think my brother and his wife would enjoy it. I'm so tired of the pressure of having to get things done for Christmas that I think I'm rebelling a little bit on getting the Awakenings quilt done. Well, at least I can finish it in the next couple months and be ready with a one gift early next year! It's still on my list of things to get done soon, but I'm just not sure I can have it done by the end of the month, given the other projects on that list.

And speaking now of totes, today is my girl boss's 26th birthday, and I've made her a lunch tote with a couple napkins--I'll give it to her tomorrow. I really like this pattern--it's fun to make! It's by QuiltsIllustrated and I think it's just called Lunch Tote. I need to pick up more of the fusible interfacing when I go to the quilt shop for Thimbleberries Club this week--this is also something I plan to make as Christmas gifts next year, so I might as well get started on those too.

Our weather has cleared up a bit, although we're expecting rain on and off throughout the week. At least we won't get the high winds and pounding rain. Our garage roof still seems to be leaking, so we'll need to call the roofing people this week--and I suspect they're going to have a back log of customers, so we may need to wait awhile. As things go, though, a leak in the garage isn't too dire. There are still people here in Sacramento without power, and The Governator has declared Sacramento a disaster area. We have a lot of older trees at my office--it will be interesting to see how everything there weathered the storm when I go back to work tomorrow.

Time to head back to the Sweat Shop before the weekend gets away from me! Enjoy your day, whatever it may hold!

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!

Coasting Toward the Weekend

We're on the downhill side of the work week and coasting into the weekend--not quite fast enough for me, but it's coming. Why is it that this "car" picks up such speed between Friday night and Monday morning? I don't want to rush though life waiting for the weekend, but I'd just like to slow the weekends down a little and speed the work weeks up. Is that too much to ask?!

You may well be wondering what that photo is at the top of my blog. Well, darn it, I've been carrying my camera to work with me, trying to get a photo for you of the crazy Christmas yard decoration display that's a few blocks from my home--I think this is the one with SpongeBob. Or maybe SpongeBob is around the corner in the other direction. Both yards are kind of "over the top." Anyway, last night when I came home, they didn't have the lights on yet and the inflatables were still collapsed on the lawn. Tonight, everything was in it's full glory, but I guess there just wasn't enough light for the camera to get a good photo. Blame it on the photographer. At least I tried! There sure SEEMED like enough light!

Tonight I went to a meeting of the Jo's Little Women Club at one of the local quilt shops. The shop is starting a BOM Christmas quilt in January and I'm thinking about taking it. I think the pattern is called Christmas List and I'm told it was designed by a shop owner in SoCal, but I'll be darned if I can remember the shop, and was I smart enough to take a photo to show you? No! Despite having my camera with me. What a dummy! (See later note below.) But I swear it's a darn CUTE quilt, and I really don't have enough "cute" Christmas quilts. I expressed that thought at our meeting, and one of my quilting friends, Liz, chimed in with, "Uh, have you looked at your blog lately?!" I gotta say that really cracked me up because it was totally unexpected. Liz had just mentioned before the meeting that she found my blog recently and had enjoyed reading it a couple times (HEY, LIZ! HOW YA DOIN'?). Anyway, what I had in mind is that most of my quilts are more traditional, I think. Although I dearly LOVE "cute," I try not to go there, but you know what? I think I'm going to be taking a trip to Cute! I've decided that if there's ever a time and a place for "cute," Christmas is it. (Actually NEXT Christmas will be "it," 'cause I won't have time to get cute done before this one!) So, now that I'm on a mission to put a little cute in my life, here are the two patterns I picked up tonight. (And don't worry--I actually paid for them--I didn't just pick them up and run out the door! LOL!)

After the meeting, I popped over to Michael's for a few things for Christmas gifts/crafts and got a candle for my bark. Sounds kind of funny, huh? Anyway, here's what it looks like all dressed up:

I finally got the It's a Wrap quilt up on the wall behind my kitchen tree--I took it with me for show and tell tonight and hung it when I got home. (Pssst! See that canning jar full of white stuff to the right of the tree on top of the toaster oven? VERY IMPORTANT Christmas decorations, I'm telling you! One of the MOST IMPORTANT! Those are marshmallows for my hot chocolate! A VITAL ingredient for the holiday season! LOL!)

I also thought you'd like to see the cool GREEN bird I found to go on the top of the tree. And those sparkly, crystally branches are the things my decorating consultant, Missy, told me I needed to go to JoAnn's and buy last week. (Missy's not "officially" a decorating consultant--or at least that's not what she gets paid to do. But she is my "go to" person when I want to bounce ideas off someone or get some ideas and input.) And see those green ornaments with what look like ridges or lines going across them? (There's one near the bird's "tail feathers" and another a bit below that.) Those are the GREEN BALLS that arrived in the mail last week from my bud Sharon. Thanks, everyone, for your help and suggestions in getting this tree together--I'm pleased with the way it's turned out, and I couldn't have done it without all of you!

Time for me to take care of a couple more little chores and then head to bed. See you tomorrow!

* * * * *

NOTE about darn cute Christmas List pattern. Heck, I shoulda known it would be somewhere on Sharon's blog! Actually, I guess I had a little inkling, or maybe I just wanted go over there and visit Cute a little bit, and there it was! Nancy No Blog made it! Here's the photo I shamelessly stole from Sharon's blog--she also has a photo of the pattern with some info on it HERE.

Ah, Heat!

Last night at this time, I was sitting here, writing to you, thinking my fingers just might break off from the cold at any minute. I had noticed, at around 11:30 p.m. or so, that cold air was blowing out of our heater vents. I went to bed wearing a sweatshirt-type nightgown, stretchy pants, and socks. I put an extra quilt on the bed. Now I know some of you will laugh your heads off when I tell you that it was 62 degrees in my house and I was freezing to death, but for California, indoors, that's mighty chilly!

Of course, things like this only seem to happen on weekends, don't they? I thought for sure we'd have to make a run to Home Depot for space heaters so we wouldn't turn into popsicles by Monday when the heating repair guys opened their doors. You see, we couldn't just call any heating repair guy because our system's only a couple years old and, depending on the problem, was under warranty with a specific heating company. Luckily, though, my husband telephoned them this morning and found that they were, in fact, open on Saturday. By early afternoon, I had what sounded like Santa and all his reindeer up on my roof and soon thereafter, blessed warmth was flowing out those vents once again. Why can't we have a nice hot flash when we need one?

Today (Saturday), I puttered around the house, putting some final touches on my Christmas decorating. I pinned the It's a Wrap/Holly Jolly quilt and started quilting it. And I made stuffing and roasted a chicken. You might think that having just made a turkey less than two weeks ago, I wouldn't be doing the same thing to a chicken, but we like chicken and I had sort of accidentally bought a second package of stuffing, so what the heck?! Stuffed chicken it was!

I've talked before about how many meals we get out of one poor chicken so I won't bore you again, but I've just finished making a pot of chicken soup. Tomorrow I'm putting some of that 9 (or 10) can soup/chili in the crockpot. Between one thing and another, I figure I really won't have to do much cooking for about a week--plenty of time to start getting Christmas gifts planned and started.

I've "sprinkled" some Christmas photos here and there through my post tonight. I really DO wish you could see the decorations up close and personal--they're always so much prettier when you see the soft glow of white Christmas lights reflecting off of shiny glass ornaments and smell the scented candles burning around the house. The photo below was taken looking into the Sweat Shop from the doorway.

Today's mail brought some green balls from a good friend, Sharon. The decorations in "that" color green have been placed on the tree in the kitchen--you can get a little peek at it in the first photo at the top of this post, but I'll hold off on showing you the tree in all it's Technicolor glory until after I get the It's a Wrap quilt up on the wall behind it--hopefully in the next couple days. Once I get that quilt finished, I will probably move on to the Hometown Christmas section that I'm planning to applique--which I'm already LATE on!

Time for me to get that soup packaged up and put away, turn out the lights in the Sweat Shop, and head to bed, where I can sleep comfortably tonight without the fear that I'll wake up encased in ice in the morning!

People Are Nice, Life is Good, and Sharon Needs to Start the Hometown Christmas Quilt!

I have some this-and-that stuff to share with you--miscellaneous, non-cohesive, tidbits of chat. I think those words, "miscellaneous," "non-cohesive," and "tidbits" probably describe my life during the holiday season. In fact, I suspect they describe all our lives! If you're anything like me, you've realized that Christmas is now less than four weeks away and you have a lot to do. And you have no idea how you'll get it all done. And you know that you have more to do than you've even thought about yet because the idea of thinking of any more stuff to do scares you silly. And you want to scream. And you want to crawl into the back corner of a dark closet and pull your eyelashes out. But you don't. Do you?

Or maybe you're not like me. Maybe you've already finished your Christmas shopping, wrapped your gifts, and gotten your Christmas cards in the mail. Now you're free to sit by the fire gazing out at the gently falling snow while contemplating world peace, mingle at cocktail parties in a perfect size 5 dress, and hostess lavish charity events for homeless children. But probably not.

I digress. So, you're probably wondering what I did tonight, right? But even if you're not, it doesn't matter because I'm telling you anyway. I went to Target yet again, this time to buy some snowflakes. Why can't I just go to Target and buy snowflakes? Why does a trip for snowflakes end up costing something like $80? One of life's mysteries. But then the national and world economy is a mystery to me too. All I know is that I'm apparently stimulating it. I think I'm probably better at stimulating the economy than a hooker is at stimulating . . . well, never mind. Where was I? Oh, snowflakes. So I came home and told my husband I was starting dinner. In the meantime, because I'm a woman and fully capable of multi-tasking, I got myself a hammer and finishing nails so I could hang the snowflakes on the wall behind the range. My husband had a hard time understanding why I needed a hammer and nails to cook his dinner, but I figured I could hammer and stir, hammer and stir, and before long, we'd have soup AND Holly Jolly snowflakes. That worked pretty well until I accidentally hit the handle of the wooden spoon, which flew out of the pot and onto the floor, and splattered tomato soup all over the stovetop, the front of the oven, and the floor. But at least it didn't get on my snowflakes! And sure enough, by the time the soup was ready, so were the snowflakes.

So here's Holly Jolly now, surrounded by glittering, colorful snowflakes. Better, yes? And I would suggest that if you try this trick at home, you paint the letters a color that contrasts with the walls. Before I added the fabric to the fronts, I painted the letters white. If I had painted them black, for instance, I think they would have "popped" from the background a little more. Live and learn. Read blogs and learn more. Not a great photo but I couldn't wait until morning when the light would be better.

I was reading Sharon's blog tonight to see how she's doing on that Hometown Christmas project and I noticed that Carole had commented on "Rob--I mean Rod--Stewart" and it reminded me that I don't think I mentioned what a nice thing my guy boss did for me a couple weeks ago. We were talking about music one day and a few days later, he gave me two CDs he had made of some music he thought I'd like. It took me awhile to get around to listening to them, but I finally did over the weekend while I was decorating and my husband was gone--I cranked those speakers up so I could hear them no matter where I was in the house. And he was right--I did like them. Wasn't that a nice thing for him to do? Both of my "kids" are great to work with!

And speaking of stuff that makes me do a little happy dance, in yesterday's mail I receive my bingo winnings from my online Thimbleberries group--we've been playing lately for 2-1/2" strips of fabric, and I probably won about the equivalent of a jelly roll--here's a photo:

Cool, huh?! My win, though, means I have to call the bingo words for our December game. Heavy responsibility during a busy time of the year, but I'll try to rise to the occasion.

Tomorrow night (Wednesday), I think I'll work on decorating the tree in the Sweat Shop. Some of what I purchased at Target tonight is for that tree, and I was so excited about the goodies I got that I WOULD have started decorating tonight if it wasn't for having to hang snowflakes, cook dinner, and clean up sloshed soup. But tomorrow night will do. If all goes as planned--and you know it rarely does!--I'll get it done and share a photo with you.

Finally tonight, for those of you working on the Hometown Christmas project, our next section is due by Friday. Have I done mine? Nope! Have I even looked to see which section it is? Nope! But I will! I have a feeling it might be that holly and berries one--someone said it looked like something their cat had walked on and I have to laugh and agree. If that's the one, I'll be doing something completely different with applique, so I may well be late this time. How are you all doing? Who's keeping up? Who's getting ahead? Who hasn't even started theirs yet?! I think it may be a little hard to keep up this month, but you can always catch up in January if you need to.

Have a great Wednesday and thanks for visiting!

Black Friday

Are you going--or have you already been--shopping today? The biggest shopping day of the year and I hear that one quarter of the U.S. population will go shopping. I'm very tempted because of all the hype, but I think I'll stay home. Goodness knows that after the last several days, I'm pretty well shopped out! In any event, I have some quilting things to do and I think my only trip out will be to the post office. Besides, my husband threw out the newspaper before I could look at the ads. Do you think he planned it that way?!

I hope those of you here in the U.S. who celebrated Thanksgiving had a wonderful day filled with family and friends. We spent a quiet day doing things around the house and then went to my in-laws' house for dessert in the evening. My husband baked two pumpkin pies to take along, and they were yummy! Because dessert was at 6 p.m. and we didn't have our turkey sandwiches for lunch until around 2 p.m., we ended up having our dinner after we got home from dessert! Backward, I know, but it worked out well.

There's still no real, all-out decorating going on here as I've continued to clean and get the house ready to decorate. I spent most of Thanksgiving day cleaning out my craft and junk closet in my son's room as well as some of the other drawers and places I store things in there. Looking at some of the craft stuff I still had brought back memories of the '80s! I took out a couple large bags of trash and emptied a few storage containers, and when I finished, the closet looked much like it did before I started. Somehow that doesn't seem quite fair! But at least now I know what I have in there and where it is.

After we got back home from visiting relatives, I went into the Sweat Shop and played around with my big wooden letters, trying out different techniques with paper, stickers, inks, and stamping.

I couldn't get a good photo that really showed the true colors, but I think you get the idea. I'm reasonably happy with my first efforts at playing around with these materials.

I think I'll either put these up on a shelf that can be seen from the front door or I'll put them in the living room somewhere. I think. I'll have to play around with different ideas and decide where I like them best.

I have more letters that are smaller and will spell Holly Jolly. I think I'll just paint those, and I'd like to somehow mount them on the wall over my stove. Any ideas on how to do that? I can't think of anything temporary that wouldn't be affected by the warmth of the stove and oven. The letters in "Holly" are smaller than "Jolly" and I was thinking maybe pins stuck in the wall would be reasonably invisible but strong enough to hold up the smaller letters, but I'd probably need small nails for the larger letters. Or maybe I'll think of a completely different plan by the time I get them done--who knows?!

If you're braving the shopping crowds today, I wish you good luck and good deals! Thanks for stopping in to visit with me!

Seven Years Bad Luck

I didn't mention it before, but when I was cleaning house on Sunday, I was trying to move a small bookcase back against the wall after unplugging the vacuum, and something on the bookcase bumped into the mirror that hung above it and knocked the mirror down. Shattered, of course. I was kind of bummed but I'm not very superstitious, and since I was heading out to Target anyway, I figured I could simply replace the mirror.

As I was getting ready to leave for Target, I sat down on the bed to put on my shoes and sat on my reading glasses. Yep, they were kind of bent up, but I was able to bend them back. Mostly.

The next day (Monday), as I mentioned, we had a slight turkey mishap. Coulda happened to anyone. Or maybe I should say it coulda happened to any one who has a husband who doesn't pay attention and who leaves that same husband in charge of checking the turkey. (By the way, is that redundant? "Husband" and "doesn't pay attention"?)

Tonight (Tuesday) I had planned to stay up late and shampoo the carpet in the living room. See, one of the things that turns the whole Christmas decorating thing into quite the ordeal for me is that for some silly reason, I seem to pick this time of the year to do what most people call "Spring cleaning." Weird, huh? It just seems to me that as I'm climbing around decorating and moving furniture and such, I might as well do some good cleaning. So tonight I moved the furniture and vacuumed the carpet, and then I got out the carpet shampooer and filled the soapy water container and the hot water container and plugged it in and got started. After a little bit I realized it wasn't spitting the hot soapy water onto the carpet although it was sucking water up.

You may be wondering how I know it was sucking water up if it wouldn't spit it out. Well, genius that I am, when I realized something was wrong, I thought I'd just tilt the thing a little to see if I could look underneath and figure out why it wasn't "spitting." That, of course, caused a bunch of the water in the reservoir to spill out, thus requiring the "sucking up" feature of the shampooer.

When I realized the darn thing just wasn't going to work, I went into the bedroom where my husband was trying to sleep, and stood on his side of the bed and stared at him until he opened his eyes to see what I was doing. After I explained the problem to him and didn't go away, he wandered out to the garage in his underwear to see if he could fix the shampooer. Frankly I think he got too cold out there to really try very hard, because a few minutes later, he came back in, said he couldn't fix it, and headed back to bed. Of course, I then took the thing apart myself and cleaned it really well and tried it again, but it still didn't work. I guess breaking a mirror really does bring bad luck.

So I got a pot of hot soapy water and a soft brush and got down on hands and knees and did the worst parts the old fashioned way. At least I was able to use the shampooer to suck the water up again. I think I'll go out and buy a new one.

The day wasn't a total loss, though. I do have some photos to show you of what I did get done.

I spent about four hours or so taking down all my fall decoratings and gathering up my quilts and bedding for the wash. And although I've since washed, folded, and put away all the quilts and bedding, all the fall decorations are still piled on my kitchen table. I probably would have put them away tonight except the carpet shampooing thing took longer than I expected.

This is our Christmas cookie jar. When I told my husband that it would not be filled with Christmas cookies this year because of our diet, he cried. Now that I think about it, maybe that's why he didn't really try to fix the carpet shampooer. Passive-aggressive tendencies. I think I'll probably put the cookie jar up on top of the hutch in the kitchen, though, because I think it's cute.

I got my Christmas bedding onto our bed and did a few other things in our bedroom, but I have to go shopping to buy new sheers for the window--the old ones are just about falling apart. So I'll get to the Christmas window treatment once I get the sheers. The quilt on top of the bedspread is the same pattern I used for the quilt I made for my boss last year and showed you earlier this week. (Silly cat likes to pose for photos. In my next life, I'm coming back as a cat. If the hardest thing I had to do was lay on the bed and be fat, I think I could manage quite nicely.)

Last of all, I finished quilting and binding my Trees on the Table tree skirt. In fact, after my last post Monday night, I went into the Sweat Shop and stayed up until 3:30 a.m. quilting--too much coffee after dinner, I think. Between taking fall decorations down, cleaning, and doing a little decorating, I took a few breaks and managed to get it bound, so it's ready to go once I get the kitchen tree up. (I'll need to wash it first to get the markings out, and don't look too closely at the spacing of the quilting lines in the green border--that was done around 2:30 a.m. and is far from perfect! I don't care--done is better than perfect, right?!)

Tomorrow (actually today), I'll need to do the above-mentioned shopping for a shampooer and sheers, finish decorating my bedroom, and do some more cleaning. More photos to come as the decorating progresses. I do hope I won't need to report any more unexpected, unlucky set backs. Hasn't it been seven years yet?!

It's The Little Things . . .

Little things. Today's been all about little things. Well, almost.

This morning I prepared backs for and pinned several little quilts. One down,

. . . five more to go. Actually, I have the second one nearly done--it just needs binding and a couple other little details, but I won't be able to show you that one for a couple weeks since it's for a Secret Santa-type swap.

Then there's this:

Lava Bar--a liquid "chocolate bar." Not that I don't imagine this little tube is filled with magically wonderful goodness, but a liquid candy bar? Why not just buy a bottle of Hershey's syrup and suck that down? Heck, buy a can of whipped cream while you're at it for a chaser! Anyway, my husband came home from work Saturday with this little giftie for me--the guy came to replenish the snack machines and this was one of the new products. Remember that "diet" my husband and I are on? My husband made a loaf of homemade bread for the guys at work and couldn't pass up eating a thick slice himself, so I think that bringing me this "chocolate bar" was an effort by him to balance the scales--pun intended!

Finally, when I got home from work on Friday, I found a box waiting for me with these little guys inside, pounding on the lid, and screaming to be let out. Remember that blog I talked about the other day with all the wonderful decorations? I ordered these little guys off the website she mentioned and I was completely and totally amazed at the speed in which they arrived. That's some service!

What wasn't so little today was the burrito I had for dinner. My husband and I stopped at a local Mexican fast food chain, Adalberto's, and picked up dinner--I ordered a "super burrito." We had only eaten there once before and I don't remember what I had. This super burrito, though, was ginormous--I had no idea until I looked in the bag on the way home! We thought that maybe instead of serving a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner, we could just pick up a burrito--it would probably serve a family of 6! Seriously, though, this thing was about a foot long and 4 to 5 inches wide. Needless to say, I didn't eat it all. Not even close.

My bill at the local craft store wasn't little either--that's where my husband and I went before we picked up my 20-pound burrito. Boy do I have a lot of projects to work on in the coming days! The other day when I was blog surfing, I came across this (click HERE to visit the blog):

I really thought maybe I needed something along these lines, so when I found the local craft store had large wooden letters, a few made their way into my shopping cart. LARGE wooden letters. Yeah, I guess those weren't so little either. Okay, so not everything today was little. But I still have four little quilts waiting for me to work on in the morning plus a little bit of the fifth to finish, so tomorrow will probably be another little day. I hope you enjoy your day, no matter what size it is!

It Was Great--Except for the Bruising!

When the California bar results are posted, they are first available at the appointed time on the internet and only to the person who took the examination. Each potential new attorney is assigned a log-in code so they can access their own results. Once logged in, there's a screen with the person's name and a bunch of other information. In teeny tiny print, somewhere near the bottom of that screen, it will say, "[name]'s name appears on the pass list." Of course, attorneys are well known for their affinity for fine print, so I suppose that makes some sense. However, if you're nervous, if you've already had a few "adult beverages," and/or if you're looking at your results on a lap top in a room full of people, finding those words on the screen can be difficult and nerve wracking!

The day has already been suspenseful enough, so I'll just tell you up front that both my "kids" passed. Occasionally throughout the day, I'd check on my boy boss and he was calm as could be, even up to the time he was logging onto the state bar website on that laptop in the room full of people. My girl boss, on the other hand, has been doing breathing exercises for the past few days and we weren't sure how she was going to make it until 6 p.m. when the results were to be posted.

In an effort to help out, our senior partner took the two of them out for a late, long, and somewhat wet lunch which kept them occupied until a little bit before 4 p.m. Oddly enough, they seemed somewhat relaxed when they returned to the office. Imagine that, huh?! Also in an effort to help them and the rest of us pass the time, my former boss broke out the blender and margarita makings and we all sat around laughing, talking, drinking, and entertaining the "kids" until 6 p.m. Boy did time move slow! Shortly before 6 p.m., my girl boss retreated to her office and obtained her results behind her closed office door while my boy boss gutted it out in front of an avid audience.

It's been a long time since I recall seeing and feeling that level of excitement and emotion. We laughed, we screamed, we jumped up and down, we cried, we drank some more, and we hugged--boy did we hug! Everyone was hugging the "kids" and they were hugging everyone, absolutely beside themselves with joy. We hugged so much and so hard, I wouldn't be surprised to find bruises in the morning!

When I left the office at 6:30, some of the attorneys were planning to continue the celebration by going to dinner at a local restaurant--I can only imagine the hangovers tomorrow from alcohol, tears, and adrenaline. But it was a fantastic day! In fact, I can't imagine a better way to start an absolutely fantastic week of vacation time! Wooo-hoooooo! Congrats to "my kids"! I knew you could do it, but it sure is a relief to get that confirmation from the state bar!

Blog Surfing

I don't really have much to say tonight, although my friend Eileen is sure to say that's never stopped me from saying a lot anyway.

I stayed home from work and iced my back and laid in bed and read and slept and iced my back some more throughout the day. Not very interesting, is it? I didn't think so. On the up side, my back finally felt decent enough by late afternoon to sit in a chair and do a little bit of quilting. Of course, I didn't get as much done as I would have liked. Tomorrow (Wednesday) night I have my Thimbleberries Club meeting and I had planned to bring a bit more for show and tell, but having been out of commission for a few days has put a damper on some of my plans.

I also did a little blog surfing today and came across a blog I thought might interest those of you who like to decorate for the holidays. This gal at Warm Pie, Happy Home has already gotten her Christmas decorations up, and just looking at the photos has given me a couple ideas and inspiration. I love the little quilt and books in the basket on the buggy at the start of her blog. If you scroll down further, you'll see how great her fireplace looks.

If you scroll down even further to her November 1st entry, you'll see some of her Fall decorations. Darn, I really want to just move into her house! I thought the Canterbearies figurines were so cute that I had to click over from her link and check them out. And darned if they don't have Christmas figurines that are every bit as cute! Anyway, since I'm kind of boring right now, click over there and take a look. Put on a bib first, though--you don't want to get drool on your keyboard!

My Personal Quilting "Holy Grail"

Boy have I been a grump tonight! The truly annoying thing is that I have absolutely no idea why. A quick calculation tells me that nope, it's not PMS. Menopause? Humph. Maybe. Maybe I need chocolate. Send chocolate, okay?! Hurry!

Work was good--and it has been lately. The "kids" are fine to work with--I enjoy them. They only have a little over a week to go before they find out whether they passed the California Bar and get to start practising "real" law. And I've been indulging in some retail therapy, but more about that later. So why have I been a grump? Could it be having to cram antibiotics down the throat of a pissed off cat twice a day? Maybe.

My husband is feeling really sorry for our remaining dog, and I think he's been over-compensating with the attention he's given him. So much so that when my husband put the dog in his run tonight, the dog did nothing but bark and whine. He never used to do that. Yes, he did bark sometimes, but it was only when people were passing by on the street. Now it's different. And he's not supposed to BE a house dog--he lives outside. I'm sure the neighbors are pleased with us. Yeah, that's sarcasm. So that was bugging me. But was that making me grumpy, or was it bothering me because I was already grumpy? I think the latter.

So, anyway, the title of this post--you're probably wondering what that has to do with me living in grump-dom. Nothing. Actually, it's just another reason why I SHOULDN'T be grumpy.

I think you probably know that I like Thimbleberries stuff. For several years now, I've been hunting down a fabric that I'd consider my own holy grail of quilting. I had a bit of it, but it's really a border print and I didn't have enough for a border. Today I won an eBay auction and scored a little over 2 yards--YES! Woo-hoo! Yippeee! Retail therapy! That's the print at the top. It's probably not really that exciting to most of you and it's almost too "cute" for my tastes now, but for some reason, I just love that print. So today I accomplished my fabric-finding mission!

Is my life complete though? Well, there's actually something else I've been watching for--Thimbleberries stuff again. Have you seen the new Cover Story panels? Well, they're awfully cute and all, but I don't think they're nearly as cool as the originals that were released back in the 90s sometime. I know Kristie could tell you about them and be more accurate than me, but here's what I think/know. I believe there were something like 10 original cover story panels. The panels were vintage reproduction art/greeting card-type prints printed onto muslin. I have four of them--I'd surely like to add some of the others to my "collection" one of these days. Here are the four I have:

And here's a photo of one of the Christmas panels so you can get an idea what these look like:

And just in case you have any of these hanging around in a drawer or cupboard and don't want them, send them to me. I promise I'll give them a good home! Or if you ever see any around anywhere for sale, let me know. It's good to have a goal, isn't it? Is there anything you collect or have been looking for for ages?

Oh, yeah, and I'm still looking for that non-grumpy, happy Kim. If you see her, send her home--I miss her! Tell her to bring chocolate. Time for bed--I'm hoping she'll be here by the time I wake up.

Sunday

Riddle: How can a 2-1/2" by 6" piece of fabric cost $58.71?

Answer: Lack of self-control!

Yes, I went to the quilt shop today to get that piece of background fabric I needed and, of course, I ended up with more than just that piece. I didn't take photos, but I can tell you I came home up with about 5 fat quarters, 2-1/2 yards of Sanctuary border fabric (to go with the bundle I won), some green rick rack (to add to my tree tabletopper, maybe?), two quilting stencils (for the Christmas tabletopper I was quilting and set aside this weekend), a yard of the Christmas Past white dots on white fabric, and the Christmas Past yellow I went in to buy in the first place.

Riddle: How can a quick trip to the grocery store for cat food and milk turn into a most-of-the-day cooking project?

Answer: Bargains and no self-control!

So at the grocery store, I was passing by the meat department and glanced toward the small "clearance" section, where I saw a chuck roast that had been on sale and then reduced further by 50%. I brought my $3 roast home and made chili. I'm not sure it was a bargain in the long run after I bought all the beans and diced tomatoes and such, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. They also had chicken wings on sale, and I just read something in a healthy cooking magazine about buying chicken wings to make chicken stock. So, several hours later and my kitchen could use a better cleaning than I wanted give it at 10:30 at night, but at least I have some food made. Sort of. Actually the chili's in the crock pot and the stock's in the refrigerator waiting for me to turn it into soup. Guess it will have to wait for another night though.

And what did I do today besides shop and cook? Well, I did finish the second Trees on the Table top. This one will be turned into a tree skirt--that's why the center is fairly plain. I've also straightened up the Sweat Shop a little bit and pulled out the next book for the Hometown Christmas project.

Are those of you who are working on this project keeping up? (Sharon?!!) Our fourth section is "due" on Wednesday, so I thought it was time to get started. The next section is a fence with some stars above in the night sky and more of those filler blocks on either side. I'm thinking about substituting a small section with appliqued mittens in place of those filler blocks. I'm also thinking about that rick rack I bought and some other rick rack I have in a basket in the Sweat Shop--I suspect it would look awfully cute on the mittens, don't you think?

The weekend's over yet again, and another work week looms. Are you ready for Halloween?

Do You Believe . . .

. . . in ghosts? With Halloween approaching, my thoughts somewhat naturally turn to the supernatural. Okay, I'll confess that my thoughts turn that way occasionally no matter what the time of year. Since I like to have the TV on while I'm quilting, weekends are often spent hunting down reasonably entertaining cable TV shows, and some of my favorites deal with ghostly subjects.

Every now and then, I'll catch a marathon of Ghost Hunters. I also like watching Dead Famous, although my husband thinks the show is pretty dumb. I'll agree, more or less, but I still like to watch. John Edward's Crossing Over and Cross Country are also on my viewing agenda when there's not much else on. Then there are several shows that purport to tell the stories, in dramatized fashion, of real people who have had ghostly experiences, like A Haunting and a few other similar shows that have popped up recently. Oh, yeah, and then there's Ghost Whisperer--another fun one to watch on Friday nights, although it doesn't claim to depict true stories.

Seriously, though, I can't say I fully believe in ghosts, although I don't disbelieve either. I did wonder whether I'd "hear" anything from my dad when he passed away several months ago, but nothing so far. Heck, he didn't really come to visit when he was alive, so I guess there's no reason to think he might visit now that he's passed "over."

When we first moved into our house in 1986, we had--or I should say my husband had--an unexplained experience. We have a hallway with two overhead lights and a light switch on either end of the hall--the kind of switches you have to toggle up or down. At least twice he woke in the middle of the night to find the hallway lights on, and no one was up to turn them on. Yeah, those things can be explained in other ways and so we didn't pay too much attention to it, although I did wonder--it was kind of eerie.

There's a guy whose blog I read every now and then. It's called Somewhere on the Masthead. In "real life," he writes for a magazine, although he remains fairly anonymous on his blog. No, he doesn't write stories of the supernatural--just every day life with his wife and three kids, but he writes well and his blog is usually enjoyable to read and sometimes thought provoking. I don't remember how I found him, but you know how that happens--hopping from one blog to the next one listed on someone's side bar. Eventually I found this guy and thought enough of his blog to overlook the fact that he has absolutely NO QUILTING posts and add him to my list of favorites.

When I first began reading his blog back in the spring, he and his wife had just had their third child. His parents, who were both retired I believe, had made plans to drive out and stay for a few weeks and see their new grandchild for the first time. On the drive, they were involved in a horrific multiple car/truck accident and were both killed instantly. Not only did this guy have a new baby at home, but he and his brother had to deal with taking care of things in the aftermath of the accident and settle their parents' estate. One of his posts that moved me perhaps the most was when he and his brother traveled to the wrecking yard and had to go through their parents' care and what was left of their belongings.

Anyway, I digress. Recently he's written a few posts entitled "October Moments." The posts deal with odd and/or unusual and/or unexplained happenings he and his family have recently experienced. Personally, I find this stuff fascinating. I don't think he's a sensationalist--at least not in that way. If stories of this sort capture your attention, check him out.

So what do you think? Ghosts? No ghosts? Reserving judgment? Born in Missouri, the "show me" state?! Have YOU ever had an experience you can't explain? (No, I'm not talking about looking for your scissors while holding them in your mouth or any other "unexplainable" events of that nature! You know what I mean!) I'd like to hear about them!

Meandering

I don't seem to have a lot to say tonight. Or at least no specific topic comes to mind. My friend Eileen says I often write about nothing, like the cramp in my toe. I'm not sure if that's a compliment or not.

So I thought that I'd just meander a bit tonight from one thing to the next. Stuff I thought I'd follow up on. The 10-can-soup, for instance. Monday night when I went to get the soup out to heat for dinner, I noticed a smaller plastic container of the soup was gone. This was odd because my husband had told me what he was taking for his lunch that day, and it wasn't soup. "Honey," I called into the living room, "what happened to that other container of soup? Did you decide to have it for lunch?" Well, no, not exactly. He decided to take it to work because he wanted Gene and Oscar, two of the guys at work, to taste it so they could be envious. Men are kind of funny, aren't they? But the point is, if you're thinking about what to cook this weekend, you might consider a crockpot full of that soup. It's been approved by at least three men that I know of.

My toe. My toe feels okay. And that cold never materialized. I either fought it off or it was just a nasty allergy thing. Historically, I'd say 8 out of 10 years, I catch a cold just about this time of the year. Some might blame it on the change of weather, but usually in October, our weather is still pretty nice, so that doesn't really explain it. But I DO have allergies, so I think that's probably what was wrong with me the other night. Nothing that winning a bundle of Moda fabric couldn't cure! And thanks for all the cold suggestions--I'll keep them handy because you never know when you just might need a medicinal reason for champagne and OJ.

I've been in a bit of a funk this week. Not just a quilting funk, although that's been affected too. I just haven't seemed to have a lot of energy to play around in the Sweat Shop--or the enthusiasm. I think part of it is because the next little task I'd set for myself was to piece a back for the Christmas quilt I pieced last weekend, and I couldn't seem to muster up a lot of excitement over piecing the back of a quilt. I FINALLY got that done tonight, though, and hope to pin the quilt this weekend, weather permitting. Since the only place I have that's large enough to set up two tables is the patio, rain will definitely put a damper on my pinning plans! My online group was talking about what part of making a quilt we liked least, and I couldn't really think of anything at the time. Now I have--piecing a back! What's your least favorite part? (Do I sound like Darlene?!)

This weekend my local quilt guild is having their annual show, and I plan to go over there tomorrow during my lunch hour. I'll try to remember to take my camera and get a couple photos to share. I don't have anything in the show this year, so I can just enjoy all the other quilts and visit the vendors. I was the guild's vendor coordinator a couple years back, so some of these vendors will be like long lost friends! That should be fun. Too bad they're not like long lost friends who give huge discounts though! There's one vendor I look forward to visiting every year--she carries hand dyeds, and they're hard to get around here otherwise. I hope she's there again!

Oh, remember that dead grass in the front yard that I showed you a few weeks back? After all that hard work of trying to kill it off all summer, all it took was a couple rain showers to turn the darn thing green again. Sort of. Sort of green in patches and brown in others. Of course, I was somewhat skeptical that my husband and my son would get around to digging it out and putting in a new sprinkler system and lawn this month anyway, so it's probably just as well. I'm sure the neighbors are delighted.

Not much else happening at Casa Kim tonight (except for slightly mounting excitement at the thought that the weekend's almost here), so I'll say good night and try to get my beauty sleep. I hope it's better than last night. Last night I half woke up to the sound of one of our cats trying to gag up a hairball somewhere relatively close by. Twice. Of course, I didn't wake up enough to get up and investigate. And can I just say that getting up when the alarm goes off in the morning and it's still fairly dark sucks, especially when you know you might possibly step on a hairball in the dim light of dawn? Yet another reason why I'm not much of a morning person. As if I needed another reason!

Now What Day Is It?

Blogger was being difficult about uploading photos, but that's okay because I don't really have any anyway. Unless you wanted to see my toe? It kind of hurts, but there's really nothing to see--it feels more like a cramp. Which kind of reminds me of my first husband's uncle, the chiropractor. Whenever we'd come down with a cold, we'd go over to the uncle's house for an adjustment. I was a little skeptical about the powers of chiropractic to heal a virus, but then a nice massage and adjustment were kind of soothing.

I guess this is my round about way of saying I think I might be coming down with a cold. Probably due to my toe. From what I remember, the explanation on why chiropractic helped the common cold was that viruses settle where the bones are not correctly aligned, so an adjustment would realign the bones and wipe out the virus. The only hitch was that after an adjustment, it would take a week or two for the virus to work its way out of the body. I'm kind of thinking maybe chocolate would be just as effective.

So I figure my toe is out of alignment and that's causing the cold. Unfortunately, I got rid of that husband and didn't get custody of the chiropractor in the divorce.

My current husband, on the other hand, had a different cold remedy. When we first met, he swore by hot lemonade and Wild Turkey (whiskey). (Do you think he might have just been trying to get me drunk so he could have his wicked way with me?!) Hot lemonade and Wild Turkey don't taste all that great, but if you drink enough every time you wake up, you'll sleep right through the worst of the cold. I kind of think I'd rather stay awake and eat chocolate.

Oh, yeah! I was going to tell you what today is. It's actually a couple different things. I noticed on Yahoo late yesterday afternoon that today is National Boss's Day here in the U.S. Well, you know I have two bosses now--the Kids. So on my way home from work, I picked up a couple cards and Starbucks gift cards. (I figured they could use them to buy me iced lattes as bribes.) I also gave them some of my homemade apple butter. They were both surprised and appreciative when I presented them with their gifts this morning. My "boy" said he didn't really feel like my boss. I told him I understood and asked him what he'd gotten ME for Boss's Day.

Today is also my son's girlfriend's birthday. I found out last night. She and my son have been together for awhile now (nearly two years, I think), so I definitely want to get her something for her birthday, but I'm not sure what. I would have given her chocolates, but I'm keeping them for myself. Did you know that chocolates cure the common cold? Yep! Don't fall for that hot lemonade and Wild Turkey stuff. Or chiropractic. Chocolate is the cure. Administer chocolate several times a day, and your cold will be gone within a week or so. Guaranteed!

What's a Meg?!

Marcie asked what a "Meg" was, so I thought I'd give you all a link to Vicky's explanation--I'm sure you've all EXPERIENCED it before as either the Megger or the recipient (victim!), but click HERE to read about it.

I've dumped the "9 Can Soup" in the crockpot and will post about it when I can get some photos of the soup when it's done. So come on back and visit later!

Hey! Guess What Today Is?

No, it's not the day I shoot up and go looking for bunnies in the backyard! I just know one (or more) of you will come up with that guess!

Today is flu shot day! Woo-hoo! And no, I'm not being sarcastic. One of the nice little perks at my office is that they bring in a nurse once a year to administer flu shots to any of the employees who want them, and the firm foots the bill. We can also arrange shots for our family members (for a fee), and my husband will come in for one too. (I think if I pay extra, they might just let me administer it to him!)

I'm a firm believer in flu shots, although I know there are people who disagree and that's fine. But I CAN tell you that the two years we didn't get flu shots (once because of a shortage of the vaccine and once because we had a new office manager who forgot to make the arrangements), I got the flu and was sick as a dog and missed a week of work each time. Ugh!

I signed up for a Thimbleberries class on Friday night from 5 to 10 p.m. I just hope my arm isn't sore from the shot! I'd hate for anything to get in the way of a good time! Oh, and if I don't post to my blog on Friday, don't worry about me--I'll just be off, piecing up a storm! We'll be working on Christmas projects from this year's Thimbleberries Christmas Street book. Now that I feel like I have a handle on Halloween and Autumn, I'm starting to think about Christmas!

What's Black and White and Hops All Over?

Last night, our favorite Italian restaurant was having a take out special in honor of Columbus Day--buy one pasta entree, get the second free. Since it was the last day of our vacation, and I was busy making a complete and total mess of the kitchen, I sent my husband off around 6:30 to pick up dinner. Just as I was starting to get concerned by around 8:15 when he hadn't returned, he walked in the door carrying our meal. As it turned out, he and a lady behind him had to wait well over an hour for their orders. To tell you the truth, it really didn't bother me much since I was battling the huge pot of dark brown ooze otherwise known as apple butter, but my husband was none too pleased. Still, they did give us our dinner for free, along with two coupons for a free appetizer or dessert. And by then, I was about done with my canning, so I could sit down and enjoy the meal--and watch the last couple minutes of the Monday night football game, which was the most exciting part.

This morning I stepped out onto our back patio to see a black and white bunny rabbit. It took a few seconds to register that it was a bunny and not a cat, but when I turned to go get my camera, the furry bundle of fluff hopped off. Now I wonder: Was it a hallucination? After all, we don't get a whole lot of bunnies hopping around in suburban Sacramento yards. Maybe I'm running a fever? Maybe I should call in sick to work?

Pot Bellied Cow?

Is there such a thing? Or maybe a mini cow? Something small enough to live in the living room of a condo? Our good blog buddy Vicky over at LA Quilter is in the market for one. She just bought a milking stool for her living room--it's a conversation piece. Just think how much MORE conversation there'd be if she had a cow to go with it.

I've done a little bit of checking on the internet and found this little guy, Vicky:

Or maybe you'd rather have this guy?

If anyone knows of a nice, small cow, please contact Vicky, okay? She really needs a cow to make her life complete. Even if she didn't make it to the grocery store for a month or so, if she had a cow she'd still have milk to drink. Ice cream to make. Cheese even.

But no beef, okay?!

Reclaiming my Home

Who? Me?!

When the Wild Child and the Drooling Dog went home on Wednesday, I thought things were on the way to getting back to normal. As my husband and I were getting ready for bed, we heard a crash. When I went to investigate, I found Spike, the younger cat, had gone into my daughter's room and knocked a plant off the shelf--probably her way of saying "good riddance to the Drooling Dog." I came back into the bedroom and told my husband what had happened and, as I started to leave the bedroom again, he asked, "Are you going to clean it up now?" "Nope," I replied, "I'm going to take pictures." Funny what blogging does to us, isn't it?! To tell you the truth, that one last pot full of dirt scattered around my daughter's room did little to make the house much worse than it already was, but maybe that was the last straw that tipped the balance in favor of taking a mental health day!

I'm a little stiff and sore this morning. I didn't stop cleaning and decorating yesterday until around 3 p.m. when my feet and legs just didn't really want to play that game any more. Then I took a quilting break and a grocery store shopping break and another quilting break. Finally, late last night, I finished some of the cleaning I hadn't done earlier. Boy I slept good last night too!

Here are a couple photos of my Autumn decorations . . .



and the leaf quilt which still needs binding--but it's close!

I still need to decorate in the kitchen and get binding on that quilt--probably tonight. Happy Friday!