Almost!

Just six more sleeps and then the paper comes down off the windows, . . .

. . . the front door opens, and a new Sacramento quilt shop will be born!

If you ever shop in the Sacramento area, now you'll have a new quilt shop to check out--and tell your friends about too! It's located in Town and Country Village off Fulton Avenue (not too far from I-80) just across the parking lot from the building that used to house William Glen (Goore's baby store is moving into that building very soon).

The grand opening is next Thursday. I can hardly wait!

I May Have Found My Soul Mate

Did you hear the news about the guy in the cow suit who robbed Walmart of 26 gallons of milk, which he then began handing out to customers right outside the doors of Walmart?

He wasn't apprehended right away though. No sir-eeee Bob. Police were called to a disturbance at a nearby McDonalds where they took him into custody. The news story doesn't say, but I like to think he was attempting to rob McDonalds of 26 hamburgers to hand out to people outside the restaurant. It makes a certain amount of sense, doesn't it?

I think the guy must have a terrific sense of humor. Either that, or he's loony as all get out.

I just hope the judge is amused. And, of course, the guy has a udderly excellent defense: Mad cow disease.

You can read the whole story HERE.

Sheepishly Ducky

A funny thing happened when I was scheduling that vacation week I took a couple weeks ago. I wanted to make sure I didn't schedule myself out the week of Administrative Professionals Day (formerly Secretaries' Day) because my office always does a week-long celebration and I didn't want to miss it. I mentioned that to our admin assistant and told her I was specifically taking the week before off. Well, it turned out I had my dates a bit off--there was actually a week BETWEEN my vacation and the week when Administrative Professionals Day was scheduled (which was today, by the way).

Well, I guess because I'm always so believeable and very rarely wrong, no one thought to check my calculations, because all of the plans to celebrate the occasion LAST week, a week early, were in place before I came back from vacation. Oops! No big deal though--it doesn't really matter WHEN they celebrate "our day," just as long as the bosses take a little time at some point in the year to think about all the stuff we do that helps them do what THEY do.

Our senior partner is an avid duck hunter. And goose hunter. And "anything with wings" hunter. So he came up with a plan to provide ducks and geese to a local Chinese restaurant so they could prepare a wonderful feast for our lunch last Thursday. And with that plan, came the theme of the week: DUCKS!

Our admin assistant is a creative genius, and not even ducks could set her off her stride. The first day, Monday, we came in to find we each had a new DUCK coffee cup with a gift certificate for a half day off. It was very clever--each cup was different and most of them matched our personalities. (Mine was a rubber duck swimming in a broken raw egg and shell. I figured it meant they saw me as cracked, but I was told it was more about the way I think outside the box.) How our admin assistant ever found over 20 different duck cups, I don't know but she's very good with that kind of thing!

The next day, Tuesday, we were treated to a delicious catered breakfast. Yum! There was so much food, we had it for breakfast and lunch for two days!

On Wednesday, we found a plastic "paint can" filled with bath products, and on top of the can was the rubber ducky in the photo above.

Thursday was the "fowl" Chinese lunch--which was much better than it may sound on oh so many levels. The admin assistant had arranged for us to play a duck trivia game too, which some people took much too seriously. We had to fill in the answers to ten or so questions about ducks. Well, since I know next to nothing about ducks, I went for laughs with stuff like "What's a female duck called?" My answer: "A cold duck." Surprisingly, I won a prize (photo below) of a canning jar filled with chocolate eggs and a duck full of bubbles for something like "most entertaining entry," which I suspect is much like the "class clown" designation in high school. But, hey, if it gets me chocolate, I'm not going to complain! Best of all though was that we got the rest of the day off after lunch--woo hoo!

On Friday, we ended the week of pampering with more pampering--a gift card to a local spa!

Yep, my office treats us really well, and I think that's why we don't mind working hard at what we do, and that in turns helps our bosses be successful at what they do. And besides what the office did for us last week, my own boss gave me a beautiful planter with two different orchids and some wonderful bath goodies today. And that reminds me--Rubber Ducky's waiting for me in the bath. Gotta go!

Finally!

I was wishing tonight that someone would come along and just slap me and tell me to quit messing around and get back to sewing. For some reason, I just haven't felt very motivated lately. In fact, since around the time I redecorated the bathroom and cleaned up the Sweat Shop a couple of weeks ago, I've been loath (a good word that's not used nearly often enough!) to go in there and do anything that would mess up the space again. Really, though, I'm not sure if it's really an underlying concern about messing up the Sweat Shop or simply a lack of motivation.

Oh, sure, I've BEEN in there. I've SAT in there and looked around. I've even sat in there and flipped through magazines. But I haven't done anything at all creative really. Just sat. And looked. And thought. And then I've left, shutting the door behind me.

On Sunday, I zipped up a few seams to make a backing for the Thimbleberries basket applique quilt and took that monster out on the patio to pin it for quilting. I thought maybe the quilting drought was over then, but no. I soon found out--when I had absolutely ZERO inclination to set up the Juki I use for quilting--that I was no closer to actually DOING anything than I had been before.

Do you ever feel like that? The nearest way I can describe it is quilter's block mixed with a little bit of boredom.

So tonight, when no one came along and slapped me, I decided to just sit myself down and give myself a good talking to. And I made a little bargain with myself. "Self," I said, "Just pin the mini quilt, and then you can go do something else with the knowledge you accomplished a little something tonight." So I did--I pinned the mini quilt. And because that only took about 20 minutes, I got the Juki out and cleaned it and set it up for quilting. And then, without really thinking too much about it, I actually STARTED quilting!

Imagine that!

Well, I'm not done, by any means, but at least I've made a start. And I think that making a START is at least half the battle, don't you? Because once I've started, then it really isn't that far until I finish--whatever it is, however long it will take, I know it really isn't that far until I finish.

And then I just need to remember to start again, because sitting, looking, and thinking just isn't enough.

Of Kids, Kats, and Kings

I have a mish-mash of stuff to talk about tonight. Kids first--actually only ONE kid. I have a new video Soccer Son uploaded to YouTube. Longer, better, impressive--I'd think that even if I wasn't his mom. He filmed it on the Sacramento State University campus.

Seeing how good he is with his feet, I don't expect you'd be surprised to know he was in the breech position at birth and had to be delivered C-section.

Speaking of soccer, did you see on the news a couple days ago where a soccer team won a HUGE tournament and accidentally dropped the trophy from the top level of a bus and crushed it? See, those guys just aren't any good with their hands. If they'd been holding the trophy with their TOES, it never would have happened!

Stitch is laying here on the desk with his head on my hand, so it's kind of hard to type. He keeps wanting to lay on the keyboard. Last week he started sneezing and sneezing, so Hubby took him to the vet on Friday and we learned he has an upper respiratory bacterial infection. He received a major antibiotic shot and he's been slowly feeling a bit better day by day, but he's still a little tired and a bit sneezy. It would be funny to watch the sneezing if I didn't know he wasn't feeling very well! Even when he's feeling well, he likes to cuddle, and now that he's not feeling so good, he likes to cuddle even more.

How into this royal wedding stuff are you? I'm getting really tired of all the hype, and I just wondered whether I'm the only one who isn't at all excited. I've set up a little poll in my sidebar that will stay open for the next few days. Please vote if you get a chance--I'm curious.

Thanks for stopping in for a visit! I gotta go put Sneezy to bed now.

Change of Plans

Sometimes bloggers are accused of only writing about happy stuff. The criticism there is that we bloggers create a rosy, happy picture of life that's unrealistic. And that's pretty much true, in a lot of ways. Consider, though, that blogging about the less happy stuff is kind of difficult. For one thing, who wants to read a bunch of bad or sad news? And more importantly--at least from the blogger's point of view--it's kind of hard to write about the less happy things in life without whining or ranting.

Anyway, it occurred to me that in the interests of "keeping it real," I'd tell you about our Easter. Remember that big Easter dinner I had planned to cook with all my family here? That was on Thursday, I think. On Friday, Soccer Son called me at work to tell me he had forgotten he and his Lovely-Wife-to-be-Someday were supposed to go to her parents' house for dinner. He suggested I have an Easter brunch. Or lunch. (Remember, at this point I had already shopped for and planned DINNER.)

On Friday night, Hubby told me the Wild Child was planning to go to Chico to spend time with her boyfriend over the weekend. He thought she might still be home Easter morning, though, and then leave around noon, so maybe lunch or brunch was a good idea after all. When I asked her, I found that yes, that was what she was thinking, except she wanted to leave for Chico right after work on Saturday night, which would mean completely missing Easter with us.

At that point, I cancelled Easter altogether. If my family didn't want to spend time together, I didn't want to spend a lot of time cooking when I could be sewing, reading, or just plain sleeping in.

Over the course of Saturday, Soccer Son petitioned feverishly for some kind of Easter get together. He's a very traditional kid when all's said and done. He came by our house before his football game and told me how much he wanted to spend time with us on Easter. He even offered to help with the cooking. I told him I'd think about it. He pressed again later in the evening at the BYOE party.

As it turned out, I made Easter lunch. It wasn't what I had originally planned. In fact, I served a salad, ham and cheese sandwiches on ciabatta rolls, and spicy Mexican corn. Low key and not too work intensive. But it was a nice time to visit with my family--minus the Wild Child--and that's really what's important.

So, as you can see, life in our household isn't perfect--far from it. But it's not bad. And really, it's much like everyone else's. I hope you had a happy Easter too, with or without the drama!

The BYOE Party

Tonight we went to the BYOE ("Bring Your Own Eggs") Party at Terry and Lisa's house and had tons of fun! Would you like to hear a little bit about it? First, I always feel it's a good idea to dress for every occasion. From head . . .

. . . to toe.

There was tons of good food to eat too. I brought egg rolls. Get it? EGG rolls? Ha ha ha! My sister-in-law brought an artichoke/spinach/veggie/cheese spread that was fantastic--I really need to get that recipe and share it with you! There were also prawns and cocktail sauce; salami, cheese, and crackers; celery, carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower with a dip--really the list of yummy stuff goes on and on.

We staged our primary attack on the food table not long after we arrived, while we waited for a couple other families. After that, several boxes of egg dyes were opened and cups full of dye baths were prepared. THEN the fun began!

For some of us, the fun was found in making strict rules about when it was appropriate to dip eggs into multiple color baths and which colors should be first and last. For others, the fun seemed to come with cracked eggs and messes. Still others found fun in the "art" of the egg.

The next photos show some of our eggs. Hubby made the yellow one with the tongue sticking out; I made the orange bunny just above and to the right of Hubby's; and Soccer Son made the pinkish skeleton chick one. (I don't know what I did to him when he was a child that made him turn into such an obviously disturbed adult. Sheesh!)

Here are a few more we "created."

Soccer Son's Lovely-Wife-to-be-Someday had not created an egg but they arrived late because Soccer Son had a football game that started at 6 p.m., so they were just getting started with their eggs when we left the party. And yes, that rather disturbed looking blue/purple egg there on the left was one I made. I dunno, but maybe Soccer Son comes by his darker side naturally. By the time I finished mine, I decided it looked like some kind of Frankenstein chick.

Well, it's time to take off my ears and slippers and head to bed. The REAL Easter Bunny will be here soon, but he won't come if I'm still up. Goodnight!

A Good Egg

As I'm writing this post, I have eggs on the stove in preparation for the BYOE party tomorrow night. And that started me thinking about writing about eggs.

A couple weeks ago, I walked into the kitchen where Hubby was preparing a salad for dinner, and on the stove was a small pot with two eggs boiling in about an inch of water. "What are you doing?," I asked him. "Hard boiling eggs for the salad," he replied. Well, I don't know ALL the ways to boil eggs, and I know there are several methods, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't one of them. Still, I could be wrong, so I held my tongue and didn't offer any advice--because it annoys him and he never takes it anyway. "How long do you cook them?," I asked. "I dunno. For a few minutes," he told me.

A little while later, I heard Hubby in the kitchen, talking to himself about the eggs. When I asked what was wrong, he told me that the first egg wasn't quite cooked. I'm not sure what happened to the second egg, but it wasn't in our salad.

When I was young, my mom taught me to boil eggs by putting them in a pan, covering them (about an inch over the tops) with room temperature water, bringing the water to a boil, and then covering the pot and turning off the heat. Wait 22 minutes and they're done. Since that time, I've always cooked them that way and I've never had any eggs undercooked or overcooked. How about you? What method do you use?

I also read on the internet today that to get the deepest color when dyeing eggs, it's best to wipe them with vinegar first before putting them in the color bath. I mentioned this tip to a friend and she told me she always cooks her eggs with a couple tablespoons of vinegar in the water. Needless to say, I'm planning to be the egg dyeing party queen tomorrow night, and with that in mind, I'll ask you: Do you have any other tips? What do you like to do when it comes to eggs and egg dyeing?

Update

I don't know WHY it took me so long--it was like I had some mental block--but I FINALLY put the last border on the Thimbleberries basket/applique quilt tonight. I guess part of it was looking for the right fabric. I had a couple floral prints picked out, but in the end, I decided it looked best with something that was a bit plainer.

I think a couple of you suggested scalloping the last border and I thought that was a good idea, so I made that last blue border wide enough to do that to if it seems like a good idea when I get to quilting that part.

As for the quilting itself, well, I'd love to get it pinned this weekend, but I'm not sure I'll be able to find a good chunk of time for that little chore since it IS Easter weekend and there are things to do.

What do you have planned?

Did I tell you Hubby and I are attending a BYOE party on Saturday night at my friend Lisa's house? Yep, "BYOE" stands for Bring Your Own Eggs, and we'll be dyeing and decorating hard boiled Easter eggs--it should be fun!The food will be strictly appetizer/finger food, and I thought I'd try egg rolls again--but this time, I'll try not to fry my hand too.

I did some holiday food shopping at Trader Joe's tonight. Yes, I picked up the traditional Easter HAM, of course. Soccer Son, his Lovely-Wife-to-be-Someday, and the Wild Child will join us for dinner on Sunday. I'm also planning to make a green salad with chopped apples, onions, and nuts, sauteed green beans with mushrooms, and some kind of scalloped corn dish. Any thoughts on a recipe? I don't have one--just some general thoughts. And you know me--four ingredients is just fine. I grabbed a couple packages of frozen corn, a pint of heavy cream, and various shredded cheese blends--a smoked cheese blend sounded interesting, or I could go with a blend of pepper jack and other cheeses. So those things seemed like a good start, maybe. Again, though, if you have a corn dish you like, I'd welcome suggestions.

It's time to hop off to bed to dream about Easter bunnies and chocolate eggs. Thanks for stopping in to visit!

Customer Service

Recently I've had instances of both good and poor customer service, and because I've continued to think about these experiences off and on, I thought they were worth mentioning here.

When I was off work and re-doing one of my bathrooms last week, I bought a bathroom cabinet with an open bottom shelf that I thought would be the perfect place for a few small decorative touches. Among my errands one day was a stop at JoAnn's fabrics to look at what they had--specifically I was pretty sure I wanted some kind of faux ivy or similar greenery.

Right inside the store, I found an ivy "bush"--a thick stem with wired ivy branches. In the same floral section, I found ceramic tea cups--actually they were half cups meant to hang on a wall. I thought one would fit well on the open shelf with ivy "growing" out of it. Kind of like this:

Of course, during that shopping trip, I found several other things to add to my basket too. The most interesting part of the trip, though, was the checkout, where a friendly young man waited on me. I was pretty amazed when he asked if I planned to make an arrangement with the ivy and the cup; of course, he was right. Then I just about fell over dead on the floor when he asked if I would like them to cut the ivy branches off the stem or whether I had the cutters I needed to do that myself to construct the arrangement.

Okay, seriously, what cashiers ever think about their customers' purchases to that extent and then offer to help? Yes, quite often a cashier will ask what we're making, right? But to really be that curious and responsive to our needs? Amazing!

On the other hand, about three weeks ago I started getting several weird emails from Olde America Antiques. The subject lines made me suspicious, so I didn't open them. There had been a lot of news about hackers getting into the email databases of online companies and I wondered if that might have happened in this case. I accessed the company's website and contact information and emailed them to let them know I'd received odd-looking emails and ask whether they had experienced any problems with their email system.

It will be three weeks tomorrow since I emailed them and I haven't heard a word back. Normally I don't name names when I have a complaint about a merchant, and I wouldn't have this time except I've mentioned the company several times on my blog because I really like their products (they print vintage images on cotton). So, in this instance, I'll make an exception because you need to know that if you've ever ordered something from them, you may have received suspicious looking emails. Really, I don't know that there's any problem with the company's computer system but I figure it's better to be safe than sorry--just don't open anything that looks like it might not be legitimate. Good advice when it comes to any unsolicited emails, right?

As far as JoAnn's excellent customer service goes, if you're in the Sacramento area, visit their store on Sunrise Boulevard and you might be lucky enough to be waited on by the same young man. Too bad he doesn't get tips!