A Little Help Here!

If you've been reading my blog for a year or longer, you probably remember that every year in early December our office staff is treated to an outing in San Francisco to do pretty much whatever we want as long as it's legal. If you click HERE, you can see my report following last year's excursion when my group went to Hayes Valley, Noe Valley, and the Ferry Building.

Every year around this time, all the staff start asking one another, "What are you going to do on the shopping trip this year?" And this year, as usual, I'm pretty clueless when it comes to ideas, so I thought I'd ask YOU.

So far, we have a group going to see a stage production of Shrek. It sounds okay, but I have a hard time imagining it living up to the movie. Another group is going to the Jewelry Mart. I've been there several times, and while it's a good stop if you're into jewelry or have small gifts to buy for people on your Christmas list, I'm not into it this year. A third group is going back to Noe Valley, which was fun last year, but I wonder if I want to go back again this year or do something different?

Another thing to consider: This would be the same date as my Thimbleberries Club's big end of the year party, so if I go to San Francisco, it has to be something worth missing the party for.

What I'd like to find are some quirky shops with fun and/or artsy items that aren't overpriced. In other words, if there was a street of Etsy shops, I'd be in heaven.

I'm not interested in shopping for clothing or shoes, except possibly something like scarves or other small (quirky, fun, and/or artsy) accessories.

So, where should I go? Suggestions anybody?

Christmas Excitement

Are you starting feel the excitement? I am!

Thank you for the compliments on my Christmas version of the Schnibbles Paganini quilt. I can hardly believe I've finished a Christmas quilt already! I'm going to write up my adaptations to give to my Schnibbles class at the end of the month, and I'll post them here around then too if anyone's interested. I know it will be kind of late by that time, but you can get a head start by buying the Paganini pattern, collecting 5" green squares of fabric, and starting on the directions to make the version 2 blocks. You'll only need 13 blocks instead of 16, but if you want to make all 16, you can always use the extra 3 blocks for pillows or a tablerunner. You'll also need 1-1/4 yards of the background fabric. Finally, for now, when making the half square triangles, I sewed a scant 1/4" seam, so I was able to trim the half square triangle blocks to 4-1/2" rather than the 4" called for in the pattern, and my wreath blocks measured 8-1/2".

Have you checked out the Home for the Holidays blog hop? A different designer is featured each Tuesday and Friday, and that designer offers a project and a cookie recipe on her blog. Last week was Brenda Gervais of Country Stitches and Debbie Field of Granola Girl Designs. I've printed out their projects as well as their cookie recipes. I've already made Brenda's thumbprint cookies and I have the cookie dough for Debbie Field's cookies in the refrigerator. I thought that if I made a batch of each of the cookies and put two dozen away in the freezer each time, by the time Christmas gets here, we'll have plenty of holiday cookies to share with friends and family. Not only that, but the baking won't be a two-day marathon, and we'll have a few treats early--whatever's left after storing two dozen in the freezer.

Today's designer is Cheri Saffiote-Payne, and you know she's going to have some good stuff to share with those of us who enjoy her folk art style. If you haven't already checked out the Home for the Holidays blog hop, hop on over to Buttermilk Basin's blog to see what it's all about and what designers you can look forward to--after you've finished MY blog, of course!

Finally, I came across the link for this e-zine, Amy Powers' Inspired Ideas, The Christmas Issue, on Happy Zombie's blog and thought I'd add it here just in case anyone hasn't already read it. If visions of Christmas crafty ideas aren't already dancing in your head, they will be after you take a look at this. Just click on the title of the e-zine above, click your heels together three times, and fly off to visit the wonderful wizard of Christmas inspiration. Just make sure you come back and visit me again before too long!

On the Quilting Front . . .

Like many of you mentioned, one of the best things about weekends is having time to quilt. I didn't have that on my "bests" list, though, because (1) I quilt whether it's the weekend or not, and (2) it's a little like saying one of the best things about weekends is breathing, right?! Ha!

But I thought I'd show you that I DID do some quilting this weekend. Except for a label, I've finished my Christmas version of the Paganini Schnibbles quilt--

Not, maybe, the best quilt photo ever, but I had a hard time photographing it because of its size--it's surprisingly larger than I would have expected. In hindsight, I probably should have gotten up on a step ladder and taken a shot down on it, but I didn't realize how it came out until I uploaded the photos just a little while ago. Here's a close up of one of the wreaths:

Adding all the buttons for berries was one of the most time consuming parts but I like the way it turned out with them, so I think it was worth it.

The other little project I worked on was the first block of the Layer Cake Quilt Along hosted by Moose on the Porch. I'm using a Wee Woodland layer cake by Keiki for this one.

Finally, remember that Charm Pack Quilt Along that Freckled Whimsy hosted? There's an icon for it there in my side bar. Well, way back in August or something like that, I finished the center of the quilt but I wanted to add pieced borders and make it large enough for my king size bed, so I pulled that out today. I had used Kate Spain's 12 Days of Christmas fabric, so I got out the rest of my 12 Days fabric and got going on it. Nothing to show you yet because most of what I did today was plan and cut fabric, but I hope to be done with the piecing before too long. I'd really love to get it quilted and on my bed for Christmas this year.

By the way, I kind of enjoyed having a day with 25 hours in it! It seemed like I got a lot more done. How about you? Did you get to quilt this weekend?

Pest Extermination, Day 3

Today I baked a snap trap along with the rest of our dinner.

We knew the pest guy had put a trap somewhere in or under the broiler (which is under the oven at floor level), but he told Hubby we could use our oven--just not the broiler. First I heard a loud noise, but I didn't have any idea what it was or where it came from. Later I figured out it must have been the trap springing when it started to melt. Really, it was the chemical smell of melting plastic that tipped me off; my only fear was finding a furry little body inside the melted plastic--not something I really wanted to even THINK about while cooking dinner.

No fur though. Just a contracted piece of melted plastic partially melted onto the broiler. ARGH! Maybe I DON'T like cooking on weekends after all.

Bests

I was thinking tonight (Friday) about how much I enjoy weekends, which is kind of a no-brainer of course, but then I started thinking about what the BEST things about weekends are. So here are a few of the reasons I value weekends so highly:

Puttering around the house, doing this and that, feeling no pressure, no schedule, and no particular need to accomplish anything. Sometimes I actually get more done this way than any other!

PBS, for sure! Saturday nights on PBS usually mean episodes of MI-5, and Sunday nights on PBS usually mean Masterpiece Theater--and Masterpiece Mystery is my favorite. A weekend without one or the other--or BOTH! Yikes!--is just not the same.

Cooking. Cooking on weekends is more about pleasure and creativity than about getting a chore done and out of the way. And in particular, having the time to cook and eat a leisurely breakfast feels incredibly indulgent. In fact, now that fall is here and the weather has turned a little chillier, thoughts of pumpkin pecan pancakes for breakfast and chicken and dumplings for dinner are haunting me.

The absolute BEST thing about weekends, though, is sleeping in, buried down under a quilt, with a cat curled up by my side. Waking up to the sound of an alarm clock going off on weekdays is guaranteed to make me grumpy, and having that happen when it's still dark outside--well, that's just criminally WRONG! Of course, if you live here in the US in an area that observes Daylight Savings Time, getting up in the dark may be a thing of the past as of next week, because we'll be returning to Standard Time on Saturday night.

So there are some of my favorite things, and now I have a couple questions for YOU. What's your favorite thing about weekends? AND what's up with McDonald's McRib sandwiches? I've never had one, but since they seem to have a very devoted, cult-like following, I have to wonder what I'm missing. So, if you've had one, tell me what's so special. I just might need to add one to my weekend favorites.

Pest Extermination, Day 1

The guy who ISN'T Billy the Exterminator came today. I asked Hubby whether OUR exterminator watches Billy, but Hubby didn't ask. I asked Hubby whether OUR exterminator watched the Dirty Jobs episode that aired the other night. Mike Rowe was helping catch a skunk and had to go under someone's house to get another DEAD skunk. Hubby didn't ask. What in the heck DID they talk about if not these fascinating subjects? Sheesh!

So anyway, here's the run down of pest extermination, day 1--because I know from watching reality TV that America likes nothing better than a good pest extermination saga.

10 a.m. The pest control guy arrives

11:09 a.m. The pest control guy finishes laying numerous rat traps all over the house. Some are sticky traps, some are snap traps, and some are some other kind of traps that I haven't seen yet.

11:15 a.m. The pest control guy leaves

9:23 p.m. Barely more than ten hours later, one of the sticky traps is successful in catching something. Unfortunately, that "something" is me when I step into the pantry with my arms loaded with canned goods after a grocery shopping trip. I had to remove my tennis shoe altogether to pry the sticky trap off the shoe. AND I'm going to need to treat my tennis shoe with something to get the rest of the goo residue off.

And I can now confirm, judging by the red itchy and painful bumps on my left leg, that we do indeed have fleas. At least I know that when the pest exterminator comes to treat for fleas, I won't be wasting my money.

TO BE CONTINUED

Bugged and Broke

Today has been an expensive day. My car's in the shop getting several parts fixed that have just worn out during the last ten years and over 100,000 miles of use--stuff like brakes, shocks, tires, motor mounts, etc. And while it's nice that the car's been paid off for awhile, I think the bill I'm going to be hit with is about the equivalent of several months of car payments. Argh! Hubby's been in the automotive parts business most of his work life and the mechanic is one of our best friends, so I know we're not getting overcharged, but it's still quite expensive.

Then we had the exterminator out today too. Well, you all know about the rat problem, right? For the last few months, we've had a rat that has had the run of the house. Stitch brought it in to play when it was an itsy bitsy baby (so little that I thought it was a toy and not a real rat at all) and it hasn't wanted to leave since. We've had a couple sightings and seen a few "leavings" but it hasn't been dumb enough to allow itself to be trapped thus far. And now we've begun to see signs of a flea problem as well. The exterminator thinks the rat is spreading the fleas around and the cats probably brought the fleas in to begin with, but however it happened, NOW we need to get rid of a rat AND fleas, and that's not cheap either. Oh, and apparently the abundance of cotton fabric and wool fabric I have lovingly "collected" over time aren't the best things to have when you might have fleas. By the way, did I mention the cockroach I saw in the bathroom the other day?! Double ARGH! The exterminator suggested we try putting out a few "roach motels" since there aren't any real signs of infestation so far; in the meantime, he's going to try to trap the rat and then treat our home for fleas.

Last weekend the Wild Child and I decided to clean out all of the kitchen food cupboards--I wanted to check for active pests, pest skeletons, and rat leavings--I'm happy to say we didn't find anything, so that was a relief. I was visualizing some pretty horrible things, I can tell you! On the positive side, we still have a fair amount of food in the cupboards and pantry, so I guess we'll be able to eat for awhile despite my depleted bank account.

It's hard to believe, but even though the election is over, I'm still being plagued by pests and the bad economy. Triple ARGH!

Sick of Election Campaigns!

I really try not to talk about politics on my blog because I'm not interested in engaging in a political argument, but I think it's probably safe to say I'm really sick to death of all the election hoopla, and most of you would agree with me. Here in California, we have Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown running for governor, both of whom have deep enough pockets to bombard us with almost constant campaign ads. Add to that all the other races, and it's nuts. Hubby and I went to dinner Monday night and came home to THREE voicemail messages soliciting our votes for different candidates.

I think all of the negative campaigning does more harm than anything else. I know that hearing so much negativity from all sides makes me feel rather hopeless about the idea that there's anyone out there who could be a good leader. Sometimes I wish I was 18 again and still believed the "right candidate" would make all the difference.

At least the end is in sight and it will all be over in the morning. If I wasn't so jaded about the whole process, I'm sure I'd be excited about getting up in the morning and feeling like the entire campaign was just a bad dream.

A Thought or Two About Trick Or Treaters

One of our local TV stations did a survey asking how old was too old to go trick or treating. What are your thoughts?

When I was a kid, back in the middle ages, we just didn't go trick or treating any more once we'd moved on from elementary school to junior high school. Although we were sad to give up the free candy, going trick or treating was for "babies" and we were clearly almost grown up by the time we hit the 7th grade.

I think the kid who came to my door this year talking on his cell phone was probably too old to go trick or treating. And most likely? I suspect he could afford to buy his own candy. Or his mom could.

Last year, my father-in-law questioned a kid about whether he was too old to be out trick or treating, and the next morning, they found their cars had been egged.

All in all, it's probably better to turn off the porch light and hide in your sewing room all night, eating the bag of candy yourself. See? I already have my plans made for next year!

Paganini--Two Ways!

The first project of this year's Le Petite (organized by Sinta and Sherri) is a somewhat new Schnibbles pattern called Paganini. I wrote about the pattern before when I made this chicken-inspired version about a month ago--

The really excellent thing about this particular Schnibbles pattern, though, is that Carrie Nelson gives us four versions--and two of them are distinctly different. After I had already made the "chicken Paganini," my mind started seeing other possibilities, and as soon as I had a little free time, I began a Christmas version. You can see how different the blocks look in this version.

Yes, I've tweeked the pattern a bit further by setting the blocks on point and adding stars to the wider sashing I used, but the blocks themselves are pure Paganini. Instead of charm packs, I used some of my Thimbleberries scraps and some 5" squares my club swapped.

Were you wondering about the bows? I've used wool for those that I sewed on the machine while quilting. And speaking of quilting--it's not done yet. I still need to quilt the border and bind it. I also want to sew on some red buttons for "berries" in the wreaths.

Yep, Halloween's over and it's time to look ahead to Christmas! I'll show this one again as soon as I get it all finished.