The Old Gray Mare . . .

Last night was Girls' Bowling Night. The "girls" consisted of me, my friend Lisa, my sister-in-law, the Wild Child, the Lovely Wife to be Someday (who, by the way, is finally sporting a beautiful diamond engagement ring after what's already been a long-ish engagement), and my 13-year-old niece who's never bowled before. Me? Well, it's been a few years. In my time, when I bowled on a league, I had a high game once of 248. My average was around 160. It's been awhile, though.

About 25 years, in fact.

The short of it is I have a new New Year's resolution: to get more exercise than what I get from the sport of extreme quilting.

I'm not very good about resolutions, though, so let's just say I'm thinking about it. And losing some weight would be good too.

The longer of it? On the third frame (first and only game of the night), I was still kind of tentative about bending (afraid I wouldn't be able to straighten back up) and thought the weight of the ball (after losing strength in my wrist from carpal tunnel surgery) might cause me to release it on the back swing and kill someone. And those darn rental shoes tend to stick, right? (Besides the fact that I always feel like I'm wearing CLOWN shoes!) So anyway, I was trying to bend but not bend too much, and not stick or accidentally let go of the ball, and somehow I twisted my left leg, felt the kind of pain you get with a Charley horse in the calf, and thought I felt a bit of a POP.

I'm better tonight. Last night, though, I had to stop bowling and limp around instead. There was more limping today. But I'm hopeful it's nothing serious after all--that POP kind of alarmed me.

One of the attorneys at my office--who bowls on occasion--cautioned me not to hurt myself playing Tiddly Winks this weekend. I swear I'm the Rodney Dangerfield of the office (without the weird eyes): I don't get much respect.

I don't really like New Year's resolutions though. Too much pressure, and they just set a person up to fail. But I'm going to give it a shot. Because at this rate, Lord only knows what might happen if I ever go miniature golfing. I figure that's probably a death event.

I DO like to make quilting resolutions, although I call them "plans" or maybe "goals" if I'm feeling really ambitious. I'll tell you about my plan for 2012 tomorrow. Tonight, though, I wonder: Do you have any (non-quilting) New Year's resolutions for the coming year?

Well THIS is Super Annoying!

I came home tonight to find mail waiting for me. A smallish package from McCall's Quilting. Cool, I guess--a quilting DVD. My gift for subscribing to the magazine, maybe?

NO! Not hardly! What McCall's sent to me--unsolicited and with absolutely no advance interest expressed by me--was an "Inspire - Design - Create" Quilting DVD, and they gave me the option of paying $12.95 to keep it (along with more $$ each time they sent me a new DVD) or I could send it back. And if I wanted to send it back? They provided detailed instructions that they've cautioned me to follow carefully: "Remove the disk from the case and insert it into the white Merchandise Return Envelope, along with your Reply Form. Detach the postage-paid Business Reply Label from the enclosed letter and also insert it into the envelope so that the label shows through the envelope window. . . . DO NOT return the DVD case. You may keep, recycle or discard it."

Really? You're really making me go to all this trouble, McCall's, to send back something I never ordered in the first place? And I want to continue subscribing to your magazine . . . why?

You know that guy at Netflix who raised the rates, drove away customers, and practically killed the company? Do you suppose he's been hired by McCall's now?

Miscellaneous

I've been meaning to update you on the Christmas porn front. Remember I was talking about my blog stats and looking at what kind of searches brought people to my blog? Well, Christmas porn has been a popular search. Seventeen hits this week. People are odd, aren't they? As an experiment, I Yahoo'd and Googled "Christmas porn" and didn't see my blog come up at all on the first couple search pages, but that's as far as I got--I was sidetracked looking at all the rest of the Christmas porn. Mrs. Claus has been particularly naughty this year. (Okay, I didn't really look. I didn't want to chase away those visions of sugar plums dancing in my head.)

Someone left a comment asking about the pattern for the Garden Club quilt. (I'm too lazy to go back into my emails to see who it was, but I DO know they were "no-reply" because I attempted to reply on my new Kindle, and it was kind of a pain.) The quilt is the main project in a book entitled [drum roll, please] Garden Club Quilts. If you're interested in making the quilt, you can find the book used through Amazon by clicking HERE. I love Amazon's used books--I buy used to buy a lot of my books there. And did you know you can become a seller too? I turned over a bunch of my unwanted quilt books to the Wild Child and she's listed them--I told her if she makes any money, she can keep it for her move to New York. I'd insert a shameless plug with a link to her book listings here except I have no idea what her seller name is.

Someone else left a comment a week or so ago asking me how I get comments in my e-mailbox and move them into folders for my giveaways. There's a setting in Blogger under the "comments" tab that asks for an email address for comment notification. I have my email address listed there, and all of my comments come into my mailbox. And because I have a Yahoo mailbox which allows me to make subfolders, I can set up folders for the giveaways I do. After I read a comment, if the person wants to be included in the drawing, I move their email into the appropriate folder--that way I don't have to re-read comments from people who don't want to participate, and I don't have to print out all of the comments. I just pick a number (either through a random number generator or a random family member) and count up to the winning comment. Easy peasy!

I'm sure I've mentioned before how much I dislike mornings. I don't think people--except maybe farmers and ranchers--were meant to get out of bed before the sun is fully risen. Had my garbage man ascribed to that belief, Tuesday morning would have been better for me.

I woke up about ten minutes before my alarm was set to go off, and knowing I wanted a bit more sleep than THAT, I reset the alarm. Just as my head touched the pillow and my eyes were nearly closed, I heard the sound of the garbage truck grinding down a nearby street. Because we were a bit discombobulated over the days of the week due to Christmas and then the holiday on Monday, I wasn't sure the Wild Child would have remembered to wheel the cans down to the street. So, of course, I jumped out of bed, pausing only to turn off the alarm, and high tailed it out to the side yard where I found the cans HAD been moved for pick up.

Nothing to get too excited about there, right? Well, when I got back into the kitchen, I wasn't quite in full possession of my faculties--not like I would have been had I begun the morning in a more leisurely, civilized manner--and when I went to pull out the coffee maker's water reservoir to make a fresh pot of coffee, imagine my surprise to find the reservoir already FULL of water. Not expecting the added weight, as soon as the reservoir was free of the holder, my wrist flopped over, and water poured all over the countertop, down the cabinet and the front of the dishwasher, and splashed all over me. Nice way to start the work week, eh?!

But my early morning escapades didn't end on Tuesday. This morning I woke up around 4:30 a.m. to the sound of a cat batting one of the Christmas ornaments on the bedroom tree. Sitting up in bed, I hissed "STOP IT, MISTER!" Stitch sat on the dresser, calmly looking at me. I laid back down and started drifting off to sleep when I again heard the tap, tap, tap of a batted ornament. "Okay, that's enough," I thought, and jumping out of bed, I grabbed Stitch to assist him in reaching the other side of the closed bedroom door. Unfortunately, Stitch was somehow attached to the tree--hard to have known or anticipated since it was still pretty dark in the room. The longer the tree "followed" us, the harder his claws dug into my stomach/chest/arm. I swear he grew at least two more paws! The tree ended up on the floor, Hubby sat bolt upright (and confused) in bed, and Stitch happily left the bedroom (and his bleeding victim) far behind.

After picking up the tree and all the ornaments, I went back to sleep until the alarm went off a couple hours later. At least I didn't have to make coffee again this morning.

Oh, and I DID wake up--that second time--feeling a little better than I did last night. I really DO think it must be allergies. AND I think I've made friends with my Kindle. At least I'm starting to understand it a little more. I just need to finish the hard copy book I'm currently reading so I can try out an e-book and see how I like it.

If you've posted any questions in comments that I haven't answered or if I've forgotten to follow up on anything I've written about, let me know. With the year coming to an end, it's nice to tie up loose ends.

Have you accomplished what you hoped to accomplish in 2011? We'll talk about that in the next day or two, so give it a little thought if you haven't already. Thanks for stopping by!

Mud Brain

I've been trying to figure out tonight how this Kindle Fire works. I guess I'm becoming an old geezer because this darn new-fangled technology is alien to me. Seriously, I don't have a cell ("smart") phone, and I know the devices work very similarly--so working the Kindle is probably quite simple for 98 percent of the population. Me? Not so much.

And despite the fact that the thing can access the internet, I had to get on my desktop computer to find the user's guide that finally told me what to do.

Everything's done with an icon these days, and figuring out what the icons mean is like learning a second language--even if it IS a fairly limited language. Some of the stuff I was trying to figure out how to do began with instructions to tap the menu button. Except, for the life of me, I couldn't find a MENU button--or nothing I would associate with the term, in any event.

Finally, I found an illustration that explained with arrows, words, and pictures what everything was. As I've gotten older, I find illustrations are much more helpful than written directions. Probably because my attention span is shorter and my natural curiously is oftentimes abandoned in favor of unnatural frustration.

Turns out the menu icon looks a little like a lined tablet. Old school stuff.

I think what's been making it harder for me is the fact that my brain is filled with snot. (I thought "mud" sounded nicer than Snot Brain as a title, especially if you're having your breakfast, but it's really snot.) I've been telling myself it's allergies, but I've been feeling worse and worse and my throat has gotten scratchier and scratchier. And several people at the office have colds. I'm not quite ready to admit defeat, but just to be on the safe side, I'm going to chug a half bottle of Nyquil and get to bed early with a paper back book. Because I don't think it's safe for me to take Nyquil and operate complicated machinery like this Kindle.

The Day After . . .

Did you have a wonderful Christmas? We had a lovely day, Hubby and I and our kids (including Soccer Son's Lovely Wife to Be Someday). We gathered in the late morning to open gifts and have Christmas lunch before going to see Hugo in 3D. It was the first time in years I've watched a movie in 3D--pretty fun!

We all agreed the movie was a good one, and afterward we returned home to make egg rolls and jalapeno poppers to snack on while we played Apples to Apples and the card version of Monopoly. Other than the fact that I didn't win a single game, I enjoyed myself the entire day.

I find it's really kind of weird having adult kids who buy us nice gifts. The Wild Child gave me cheese making lessons for three (if we can arrange it before the Wild Child moves to New York in a couple weeks, she, Soccer Son's LWTBS, and I will take the class). Soccer Son, et al., gave Hubby and me a gift certificate for a night's stay in the same hotel we spent our honeymoon night in a quaint, touristy town about an hour or two away. Am I spoiled, or what?

Hubby and I have an agreement not to get gifts for one another, and every now and then, one of us cheats. This year it was him: He bought me a Kindle Fire. Between you and me, I've been pretty resistant to reading something that's not a good, old-fashioned, paper book, but now that I have this device, I'm kind of excited about it. I unpacked it tonight and I have it charging. What do you think? Do you have one? Want one? Wouldn't want one?

Today I got together with a friend, Imelda, to talk about the Autumn House applique project we're planning and have lunch. We looked over the fabrics we've both been "collecting" and agreed we probably have what we need. We hope to get together with two other friends once a month to share fabrics and encourage one another. I'm really anxious to get started soon.

In the meantime, I've been working on section 4 of the Garden Club quilt, and I just finished the parts for that this evening.

I haven't decided yet whether to go on to section 5 next or get back to my Rabbits on Crack applique. I DO have a little non-quilting craft project to work on this week, though, so it may be neither applique project for a day or so.

It's back to work for me tomorrow, but at least it's only four days of work and then another three day weekend. We almost always spend a quiet New Year's Eve and I think this year will not be an exception. How about you? Do you have any fun New Year's plans this year?

Merry Christmas!

My Christmas Eve day was spent in a fairly relaxed way. I did a little "puttering" around the house, doing some light cleaning to get ready for THE DAY. I went through all of my quilting books, culling out the ones I no longer want and reshelving the ones I do--all as part of my whittling down of quilty stuff. After the "chores" were done, I got out the book and fabrics for the Garden Club Quilt and started section 4. While I appliqued the first part, I watched the first Sherlock Holmes movie--the one that came before the movie that's in theaters now. All in all, a really nice day!

I mentioned showing you the three quilty gifts I made this week. Maybe you've seen the pattern for making quick tablerunners using a striped "border-type" fabric? I can't remember what it's called or who it's by, but it's a simple concept. A 60 degree triangle "ruler" and the fabric itself does most of the work, so it was possible to make a couple of nice gifts fairly quickly.

The two "round" ones went to my two work "lunch buddies." The three of us try to get out to lunch--usually Chevy's--every week or two. The longer runner was for another friend from work--someone I've known there since I started. I was so glad to be able to make gifts for these special friends.

I made a fourth, longer tablerunner that I was going to give as a gift but I realized how perfectly it went in my livingroom, on the chest we use as a coffee table. I didn't have a runner or tabletopper on it, and it was taking a bit of abuse from--well, I'm not sure. It looked like hot cups had been put on the wood, but I never actually SAW anything put down that shouldn't have been, so I'm not sure what was causing it. In any event, the chest is now better protected and I've paired up some homemade edible goodies with a purchased gift for the person I initially thought I'd make it for. And really, I'm pretty sure that it's a better choice in this instance anyway, so it's all good.

This evening when I went to take a photo of the runner on the chest, I noticed Stitch was nowhere to be found. I guess he's hiding from Santa. Where could he be?

Aren't animals funny?

I picked a winner for the quilt top I showed you yesterday. Cory said, "My church's Hugs Ministry would gladly accept this top. We make quilts, pair them with stuffies and give them to the local fire department for kids in crisis situations. Thank you for the opportunity to add to a ministry that is very near to my heart. Merry Christmas to you and your family. Take care and God bless." I think you'll agree with me that the quilt top will be going to a good home. Cory, please email me your mailing address and I'll get it in the mail when life gets back to normal on Tuesday.

If I don't post tomorrow night, it will be because I'm spending time with my family and/or am worn out by the festivities of the day. Now, though, I'm going to try to get to bed early with a book and a cup of hot chocolate and wait for Santa to arrive. I hope you and yours have a wonderful holiday. Merry Christmas!

The Calm Before The Storm

I'm done. At least I THINK I'm done. The weekend is here, and my paying job's done until Tuesday. The gift shopping is done--even the gifts for me. I THINK the grocery shopping is done. But is it ever really? I wouldn't be surprised if I remembered something I've forgotten. The gifts are wrapped. The goodies are made/baked. Even the tickets for the Christmas movie are purchased. (We decided on Hugo as it was the only movie that appealed to everyone.)

It's Friday night and I've finally been able to get into the Sweat Shop to spend some time NOT MAKING CHRISTMAS GIFTS! Wooo-hoooooo!

Tomorrow Hubby's going to his brother's house to watch some football; no idea what the Wild Child has planned. I DO know that I'm going to relax, sew, and maybe reassess my quilt-related stashes. In fact, I've already begun.

You know I've been giving away patterns I don't think I'll ever get around to making and I've finally gotten through the bunch. Now I've started thinking about quilt tops that aren't quite done but that I don't have any desire to finish. And I'm wondering what to do with them. This one, for instance:

I worked on this during a monthly class where we learned about fabrics and quilting styles from the 1800s. It's very scrappy. It's somewhere between 40" and 45" wide and long. And it's been taking up space for over a year now. Maybe you'd like it?

Not only do I have the quilt top, but I have a few scrappy pieces of fabric to send along with it, in case the new owner wants to add another border. There are even some already constructed HSTs.

If this project appeals to you, please leave me a comment saying you'd like to adopt it. If more than one of you are interested, I'll draw a "winner." And if there is a drawing, I'll announce the winner on Christmas.

I think this is just the first of a few quilt tops I'll give away, so if this isn't your style, maybe something will come up that is. I think I may also clean out my stash of Thimbleberries fabric and kits from the past four or five years and list some of them on Etsy before too long. I'll let you know when I do that in case any of you are Thimbleberries fans. It's not that I no longer like Thimbleberries--it's just that I've "collected" a lot more than I'll ever use and I need the space in the Sweat Shop.

How are your Christmas preparations coming along? Are you ready or are you frantic? Have you made many gifts this year or have you purchased most of them? In my next post, I'll show you a couple of the gifts I've made--and one I decided to keep for myself. Glad you could stop in for a visit!

Busy "Doing" Christmas

The Wild Child and I have been out looking at a couple of the larger holiday light displays tonight, so I haven't much time to write. Instead, I'll give you this:

Because, really, who can resist puppies? Especially Christmas puppies? I really think the Wild Child should have put Santa hats on them, though!

Remember back in October how the Drooling Dog was having a difficult time figuring out what he was supposed to do with the female boxer he was smitten with? And how he finally figured it out? Well, this is the result--three boys and three girls, born last weekend. The Wild Child got to meet them tonight.

"See" you back here tomorrow!

Binge Shopping

OMG, there's a REASON I don't normally shop! Remember the cardinal rule of Christmas shopping? Buy a gift, buy something for yourself, buy a gift, buy something for yourself . . . ? Well, I can't seem to even stick to THAT rule! My shopping experience has been more like "buy something for myself, buy a gift, buy three things for myself, decide to keep the gift I bought, buy another gift, buy six things for myself, . . . ."

By the way, I remembered the second store I wanted to go to today. And then I thought of a third. Remember I mentioned stocking stuffer type gifts? I guess I'm stuffing my own stocking.

First I went to Bev Mo and bought several bottles of adult beverages--one is a gift, although I'm trying to justify keeping it for myself. But that could be a problem, you see. Because the person I bought it for? I WAS making them a gift until I realized how nice it would look in my own home. ARGH!

Then I went to Total Beauty Experience, a large store with all kinds of scented, girly beauty products--and a few manly products too. I bought myself several nice things there, and I'm thinking about going back again for the couple things I wanted but restrained myself from buying. Oh, and I guess I DID buy a couple gifts there, but not too many.

The last store was Cost Plus and I actually DID find several gifts there. I guess I must have run out of things I needed for myself. Almost--I did find a couple things for the person at the top of my Christmas list--ME!

I'm pleased to say, though, that my Christmas sewing and shopping is very close to being done. I'll be bringing gifts for my office peeps to work tomorrow, just in case anyone plans to be out on Friday. After that, it's just the family, so picking up a bucket of coal should be pretty simple.

Gosh I'm tired out! It must be all that shopping. Time for bed. I wonder if there are any other stores I should visit on my lunch hour tomorrow? Hummmmmmmm . . . .

Santa's Got Nothin' on Me!

I hope your Christmas preparations are coming along nicely. I'm working on what I think are my last four somewhat small Christmas gift projects--I'll get photos and show you after they've been gifted, but I can tell you that I have one done and the other three just need the bindings stitched down.

I have one food-type gift that still needs to be made. I have a couple others made but they still need to be packaged for gifting.

I have some miscellaneous shopping left to do--more or less of the stocking stuffer variety, so I think I can just stop in at a couple places. I had two in mind earlier tonight and now I can only remember one! Hopefully the other store will pop back into my mind. I think I can do at least one during my lunch hour tomorrow.

The couple gifts I needed to mail went into the mail today.

My office is collecting groceries for a local food bank--I did a little shopping during my lunch hour today, so that's one item I can check off my list.

Oh! And I finally remembered to pay bills tonight--something I kept overlooking with all the other things that needed doing. Now my conscience is clear for awhile.

The Wild Child, Soccer Son, His Lovely Wife to be Someday, and I had some tentative plans to go look at Christmas lights sometime this week but we can't seem to work out an evening when we're all available. I may just make a detour or two on the way home from work one night and look at them myself--it's something I really enjoy doing, and it's just not Christmas without that little ritual.

Unless something comes up, I don't think I'll do a blog post tomorrow night. It's getting to be crunch time for Christmas readiness and I think I need the time, even if it's only to sleep. So if you don't "see" me here tomorrow, don't worry about me. Just send some friendly Christmas elves to help, okay?

Now, about the pattern winners.

For Loon Lake, I picked Carol Fun, who said, "Loon Lake is talking to me -- I think it is the bear that's talking, the moose just seems to mumble -- anyway I would love to have this pattern and thanks for your giveaway!"

Caroline gets the sampler quilt pattern. She said, "I would like the Sampler pattern, because my first "real" quilt (other than the basic squares quilt and tied with yarn), is wearing out. Thanks for the giveaway!"

And the winner of the mystery quilt pattern is "Krislovesfabric." She commented that she "would love to try the Mystery quilt with our small quilt group. We are always looking for fun projects to do together, thanks for the chance! Your blog is always fun and often inspiring to read, thanks for your time!! :) Merry Christmas!"

Carol, Caroline, and Kris, please email me your mailing addresses and I'll get the patterns in the mail to you.

Finally, I wanted to ask you a favor. If you've seen a good movie recently, please leave me a comment about it. I think we may go see a movie on Christmas and we're trying to decide which one. Of course, there are a couple that aren't playing yet that we're all interested in, but your opinions will help too.

Merry Last Days Before Christmas!