Country Cottages, Block 5

I've been working this week on the fifth Country Cottages block--this is the free block of the month from Shabby Fabrics.

The house and plant hook look like they're leaning a bit in the photo, but I think it's at least partly camera distortion. It turned out kind of cute, don't you think? But I had a little difficulty early on. I'd decided on the fabrics I was going to use and started making the house. I got to the point where I'd glued down most of the parts of the house, and here's what it looked like:

There wasn't anything really WRONG with it, but the colors and fabrics didn't feel like "May" or spring to me, so I started over. No loss, of course--I think this one will work just fine as a block for June or July, and now I have a head start. AND I have the block partially prepped, so I can take it with me to the office and do some applique on days when I don't have any other lunch plans.

The next project I plan to work on is the Schnibbles pattern, Doc. Have you made that one yet? I'm leaning toward using baby fabrics for that one and saving it until a baby gift is needed. If you've made the quilt, what fabrics did you use and what did you think of the pattern?

Unexpected Benefits

The third day of the daily cleaning schedule has come to an end, and I'm still going strong! I don't remember if I told you, but I printed the schedule out and taped it to the inside of one of our kitchen cupboard doors, where I can take a look at it each morning.

On Tuesday, as I thought I might, I cleaned various things in the kitchen while I sent Hubby out for fast food. Not great for our waistlines or pocketbooks but it got the job done. I was thinking maybe next week, we (actually HUBBY) could just make salads and sandwiches earlier in the day and pull them out of the fridge for dinner--that way, I could still clean in the kitchen and not be in his way while he cooks. But here's the cool thing. One of the chores on Tuesday's list was "drawers." I think I'm at least a halfway decent housekeeper, but my drawers don't get a lot of attention*, and I'll often pull one open and think, "Gee, that drawer needs to be cleaned! Maybe I can get to it this weekend." And then drawer-cleaning time never seems to arrive. But on Tuesday night, since it was on the list, I thought it was a good time to start on the drawers. So I picked two drawers to start with, took everything out of them, wiped them down, tossed out the stuff I no longer wanted, and put the rest back. It probably took me about 15 or 20 minutes, and now I have two clean drawers! After a month or two, I think the whole kitchen will be in pretty good shape.

On Wednesday, one of the chores was "organize closets." I'd been putting off packing away the winter clothes and pulling out the summer clothes, thinking I'd do it some weekend when I had time--and, like the drawer cleaning, so far I haven't had time--or at least no spare time I wanted to waste playing around with seasonal clothing. But tonight? Tonight I took care of it. And it feels so good knowing it's done--besides now I have cooler clothes to wear.

Earlier in the day on Wednesday, I talked to Hubby on the phone. He said something like, "I noticed on your list of chores that today you're supposed to do laundry. I could do that if you want." I know--a lot of you would kill to have your husband offer to do a chore like laundry, but laundry actually IS and HAS BEEN Hubby's chore for a long time. The problem is that I'd decided recently I need to launder my own work clothes because I think somewhere along the line, he stuffs them into zippered snack bags and has an elephant sit on them for three days before hanging them on hangers. So I said, "No, no, that's alright honey. I already started a wash load this morning, so all I have to do is dry them and hang and fold them when I get home tonight. Thanks, though." But here's the really astonishing thing: He then said, "I saw you're also supposed to vacuum the house, so I did that for you already."

So, of course I thought,

When I got home tonight, I asked Hubby, "What was the name of your first pet?" Well, I don't know if it really confirms his identity 100 percent, but for what it's worth, he got the answer right.

Thursday's chores involve cleaning stuff in the bathroom. So, of course now I'm thinking,

I'll let you know how it works out.

[No, the guy in the photo bears absolutely no resemblance to Hubby, but it's MY imagination, so I can dream what I want, right?]

*Up there where I said "my drawers don't get a lot of attention"? No, I didn't mean THAT. I can't believe your mind went there!

Farm Fresh

It's always bothered me a bit that most farmers' markets are held in the morning. Don't farmers have better things to do in the morning? Why can't they spend the morning picking their produce and then bring it to a farmers' market in the afternoon for goodness sake?!

I like fresh fruits and vegetables, but I'm not a morning person, nor am I any longer at an age where staying up all night to greet the dawn is an option. So unless I grew it myself, having fresh fruits and vegetables in the house--I mean REALLY fresh!--wasn't very likely.

Now, though, there are farm co-ops that are happy to deliver fresh, organic fruits and vegetables to my home, and I think that's an excellent alternative!

I recently signed up for home delivery of a box of organic mixed fruit and vegetables every third Tuesday. We can use a box of produce in a couple weeks, and by the third week, I'm kind of excited again to see what arrives next--and I can check online to see what's being delivered that week and postpone if that week's produce doesn't appeal to me.

So every third week, the organic fruits and vegetables equivalent of Santa Claus arrives at my house between 1 a.m. and 1 p.m. and delivers a box to my door. And you know what I said about not being a morning person? It was never so apparent as it was last night when I was making a last check of the house before going to bed, and I saw through my front window a box of produce on the patio table.

One of the interesting things about getting these boxes is that there's usually something in the box that's a bit of a challenge. Kind of like the TV show Chopped! but for the household cook rather than the professional chef. Last time it was baby bok choy--we'd never cooked with it before, and we received a POUND of baby bok choy. Sadly we didn't use it all before it got too old, but we did make stir fry one night. The time before that, it was red chard. My grandma used to cook Swiss chard but my mom never was into cooked greens other than spinach, so cooking chard was a little different for me.

And this week? This week, our box contained (among other things) a pound of gypsy peppers that look like this:

I had no idea what kind of peppers they were--thank goodness for the internet! Now I know they're sweet peppers, similar to bell peppers, and they have a thin skin. I've found a couple recipes for stuffed gypsy peppers that sound intriguing, and they're supposed to be good raw in salads too.

I would love to have a garden to grow my own produce in, but that requires more time and effort than I want to put into it. This year, we've planted three tomato plants in a raised planter, and I'll have to be satisfied with that--my own homegrown, ripe tomatoes and a box of fresh, organic produce delivered to my door every couple weeks. AND I don't have to get up early and go anywhere to get it. Not a bad deal, I think!

Let's Talk

Can we talk about housecleaning for a minute? Normally I clean my house pretty thoroughly every other week, and on the weekend between the thorough cleanings, I do a little bit of touch up of the worst stuff--parts of the kitchen, the bathroom counters, etc. After spending a good part of last Saturday either cleaning or procrastinating about cleaning, I felt like I'd lost a lot of my weekend.

I don't know how I didn't read Anna's blog while I was procrastinating, but somehow I didn't get around to reading it until Sunday. Anna has posted a housecleaning plan--a poster, actually--setting out chores for each day that sounded pretty do-able. Click up there where I first mentioned her blog and it will take you over there; then scroll down to Saturday's post.

Here at Casa de Kim, Hubby cooks dinner on weeknights and often doesn't start cooking until I come home from work, so that leaves me about a half hour of empty time--I hate to start sewing and have to stop again so quickly, so once I've changed out of my work clothes, I mostly just hang around and wait. I figure if I use that time to do that day's chores, I won't be robbing fun time to do house work and it will give me something to do while I'm transitioning from work to home.

And so far, it's worked just great! But really, it's only been a day--a single day of the new housecleaning plan. I'm pretty sure I could even stick to a diet for a day! And I think tomorrow will be harder, because Tuesday's chores involve cleaning in the kitchen, and I'm pretty sure Hubby won't want me cleaning while he's cooking, although I'm thinking about making Tuesdays take-out night. I could totally clean the kitchen while he's out picking up dinner, and it would give him a night out of the kitchen.

So my question is, what do you do? If you clean once a week--or once every two weeks as I do--have you tried a daily cleaning plan? If you ARE on a daily cleaning plan, does it work out pretty well for you? What do you do to adjust if you're away from home for a few days? Do you have any other cleaning routines that work for you? Since cleaning is really the one big thing I do that takes up a lot of time and I resent it greatly, I'd love to hear about other ideas. Talk to me, please!

Seems Like Forever

Sometimes quilt projects seem to go quickly and sometimes they seem to take forever. Block five of Autumn House was one that seemed to drag on and on and on.

We--our group of four quilters working on this project--knew when we met to cut the fabric we needed at the beginning of May that this was a larger block than most months, with two houses and the two crows. In fact, I suppose it was more like making two blocks instead of one. And I kept thinking all week last week that I was nearly done, only to get to the end of the evening and find I wasn't done at all!

But now I finally am. And true to the way the block's gone, I thought I'd be finished earlier in the day--early enough to start another project. But I wasn't. I didn't finish until the newest Jesse Stone movie was nearly over.

What next? With the little bit of time I had left of the evening, I cut out the freezer paper template for the May Country Cottage block. I hope it goes a LOT faster than the Autumn House block I just finished!

Tapping Into My Not-So-Inner Clown

When my friends and I were in Carmel last month, I was excited to spot a Lush cosmetics shop. I'd known about the line of products for awhile and I'd even placed an online order for a few of their bath bombs for my kids' Christmas stockings, but I'd never been able to check out their products up close and personal.

To start with, I knew I wanted to bring home a couple of their bath bombs, but which ones? Looking at and the exploring the variety of scents used in their handmade bombs, I felt like a kid in a candy store!

I picked out two I liked--one scented to relieve tension and one scented to put me to sleep. Here's a close up of one of the bombs I brought home--Mrs. Whippy.

And what does Mrs. Whippy do? Here's Lush's description: "We whipped up our decadent strawberry ice cream scented Bath Bomb to fill your tub and delight your senses. Inspired in scent and shape by real soft serve ice cream, Mrs. Whippy has a calming effect on skin that is feeling dry. A rather sophisticated sweetie, invite Mrs. Whippy to join you in your warm bath and watch her slowly fizz, releasing creamy, soya milk powder (yes, it’s vegan!), to soften your bathwater and soothe your skin. An indulgent, relaxing soaker; make sure you leave plenty of time to enjoy her sweet berry fragrance and comforting effects." Sounds heavenly, yes?

From there, I moved on to select a shampoo, a dry shampoo, and a dry skin balm. Then, at the register, I spotted some little pots of tinted lip gloss in a basket--there were sample pots of each shade, and a Million Kisses looked like just about the perfect red. A customer described the tint this way: "I use my pinky fingertip to apply, and any remaining after doing my lips adds a barely-there blush of color to my cheeks. Smells great, lasts and lasts without fading . . . . A little goes a long way . . . ."

Sounds wonderful, right? My experience was a bit similar. While trying to keep control of several bags of previously purchased "souveniers" from Carmel and a purse that weighs about 100 pounds, I also used my pinky fingertip to apply the tint. It went on so smoothly, I didn't even have to think about using any remaining tint for my cheeks, because my pinky fingertip easily glided all over my lips, up my nose, down my chin, and half way to each ear. My friends came along and started laughing, not only because I had lip tint smeared from ear to ear but also because I had glitter all over my nose and cheeks from "testing" the scents of bath bombs.

I love the little bottle of shampoo I purchased called Rehab. I use a Pureology conditioner, and the shampoo has a similar minty scent and does good things for my hair, but I have one little problem with it. Lush, in what I suspect is an effort to further personalize their handmade cosmetics, adds little stickers to the containers showing the guy or gal who makes each product. I've gotta say it's a little disconcerting to be sitting naked in the bath and see this guy grinning at me:

What are you laughing at?! Sheesh!

It's been over a month now since my trip to Carmel, and I was just healing from the trauma of accidentally turning myself into a circus clown in one of the more exclusive little towns in America (after all, what if I'd run into CLINT?!), when I decided to try out this dry shampoo product I'd brought home.

No Drought works a little bit like the baby powder we'd put on our hair back in the day when our hair was a bit oily and we didn't have time to wash it. Except No Drought works better. At the Lush store, I'd asked one of the assistants about the product, and she demonstrated by shaking some into her hands, transferring it to her hair, and fluffing her hair around. Yep, it looked like it worked pretty well!

Me? I don't quite have the technique down yet. In raising my hands to my hair, I think more spilled down my face than got into my hair. And when I fluffed my hair around, more spilled down my face. Before I was done, I once again resembled a circus clown with my powdered white skin. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to complete the look with the Million Kisses lip tint, because they'd been out of that color the day we visited the store.

And just to cap off the humiliation, when I looked down, there was another Lush employee laughing at me.

Hacked!

This morning, I received a recorded fraud alert call from my bank--they detected suspicious activity on my ATM card. Immediately thinking back, I knew I'd used the card at the bank's ATM just the afternoon before, but I couldn't recall when I'd used it prior to that time. A restaurant? The grocery store?

I logged into my account online and sure enough, there were a handful of charges, all relatively small, from McDonalds, a market, a gas station, and a drug store located in three small towns within a two hour drive from my home.

As I was asked to do in the recorded alert, I contacted the bank's fraud department, and identified the fraudulent charges. My ATM card was then cancelled, and I won't be held responsible for any of the charges, but I DO have to wait about a week to receive my new card.

What really amazes me is how the bank was able to identify those particular charges as suspicious. The amounts were small and the towns were close enough to my home that it wouldn't be unreasonable to think I might be making the purchases myself. It's probably best we don't know how banks catch this kind of thing so quickly, but I'm very grateful they do.

I've read a lot of warnings about using an ATM card at gas pumps, but sometimes it's the only reasonable option. When my friends and I were in Gardnerville, Nevada, last Saturday, we stopped for gas before we headed home, and I used my card there at the pump. I had a weird experience too: It asked me to authorize a 35 cent surcharge for using a card by pressing the "yes" button. I didn't immediately see the "yes" button and pushed "enter" instead. It asked me again to push the "yes" button to authorize the transaction fee, and when I finally located the right button, it declined my card. I went into the mini-mart to see if I could pay in there using a credit card, and I learned they didn't take credit cards, but the attendant ran my ATM card and it worked fine. In hindsight, I'm suspicious now about the machine at the pump. But it might not have been that. It could have been any restaurant I've been to recently. Who knows? It's hard to say.

On my way home from work, I stopped at the grocery store to purchase a few things we needed for the weekend. At the register, I punched my phone number into the electronic payment device mounted on the counter in order to get the store's club card discount, but then what was I supposed to do if I was going to write a check instead of swipe my ATM card? "I want to write a check," I told the cashier, "How do I do that?" "You just write a check," she replied. Of course, I felt kind of dumb! Isn't it funny how quickly our habits change with new technology?

The weekend is here, and I guess I should just hang around the house and sew since I don't have access to my money. Not having an ATM card for a few days might not be such a bad thing after all!

Outsourcing Retirement

Thursday night, I met up with four of my stitchery friends for dinner and a movie--we ate at the Tower Cafe and then walked a few feet to the Tower Theater to see The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

Have you heard of it? A lot of people haven't, although our local PBS station has been promoting it. The Tower Theater is one of oldest theaters in the Sacramento area and would probably be classified as an "art house." In other words, they screen a lot of really good, high quality, foreign made and indie movies that don't necessarily make it to the local multi-plex--not until they win Academy Awards, at any rate.

As we--the five of us stitchers--are all approaching our retirement years (one of us is actually THERE already), we probably enjoyed the movie more than a group of "kids" in their 20s and 30s. Having seen the dips and dives our retirement investments have taken over the last few years, it's easy enough to relate to the film.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a British film. Most of the characters in the movie are facing retirement or loss, and their economic futures aren't quite as rosy as they could wish. They are offered the opportunity to travel to India to spend their later years at a hotel serving "the elderly & beautiful." I don't want to give away the plot, but the movie focuses on how each character reacts to the life changes that face them and how they interact with the each other and the people and culture around them.

All of us left the theater talking about how much we enjoyed the film. I bet you would too! If The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is playing anywhere in your area, go see it--I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

There Goes the Neighborhood!

Anne over at Cottons 'n Wool keeps getting me in trouble. She continually tempts me with quilt projects. One of them is Country Homecomings--

Anne, Anna (Woolie Mammoth), Paulette (Sweet P), Mary (Quilt Hollow), and a couple other gals decided to make this quilt and invited others to join in. You can check it out HERE. So I ordered the book.

Now you should know that these gals all fell in love with the quilt because of the homespun fabrics used, and I have a rather extensive "collection" of homespuns too, but when I pulled out a nice stack of homespun fat quarters, they just didn't really "speak" to me. What DID speak to me was the rather large stack of Sunkissed fabric I purchased last year for an online quiltalong that I gave up on pretty quickly.

When it comes to fabric, I think I'm sort of schizophrenic. I really like the country/homespun look, but I also like brighter, happier fabrics. So here are my first three blocks--the doors and windows aren't appliqued yet, but it's something I can take with me and work on anywhere.

I'm not sure what I think. Part of me wishes I'd just gone ahead and used the homespun and part of me thinks this could be a nice little summery project. In fact, THAT part of me is playing with the idea of making these three houses into a wallhanging quilt for a door. Whatever I decide, I'm sure I'll let you know.

What's your fabric "style"?

P.S.: If you're looking for this book at a price that isn't too crazy, try HERE.

I Crossed the Line

We started the weekend last Friday night with dinner out with my family. We planned to meet at a favorite Mexican restaurant after I got off work. Hubby and the Wild Child decided to head to the restaurant a little early and I ended up working even later than expected, until nearly 8 p.m. As it turned out, it was just as well since we STILL had to wait about 45 minutes for a table after I arrived--it was much longer for Hubby and the Wild Child. Then, with a restaurant full of people celebrating graduations and Mother's Day, the noise level was uncomfortably loud. On the other hand, the food was excellent! Much better than I've ever had there before. As it turned out, this kind of broad spectrum of highs and lows set the tone for the rest of the weekend.

I was up bright and early on Saturday morning, the day of our stitchery group's road trip. Where were we headed? Nevada! Gardnerville, to be exact. A two and a half hour drive from Sacramento to The Quilt House. There were seven of us altogether in two vehicles, and I was one of the drivers.

Non-quilters, when told one is planning a two and a half hour drive to go to a quilt shop, think quilters are absolutely nuts, don't they? But I think most of you understand. And it's not just the destination: it's the fun and companionship along the way!

Our first stop, though, was at Shared Stitches in Shingle Springs--only about a half hour or so outside of town. And I forgot to take photos--we were just warming up, after all.

Around 1 p.m., we pulled into the parking lot of the Quilt House. I DID take photos there, and they're pretty self-explanatory, so I'll just give you a moment to take in the sights and browse a bit.

After shopping long enough to ensure nothing was missed, and after returning to the register with additional purchases a time or two, we finally gathered our wits and purchases together and left the store. We stopped for lunch and gas, and then we headed back to Sacramento.

The trouble started in Placerville, about 45 minutes from home. We left the freeway at Placerville for a little rest and relief stop at McDonalds. Short break over, four of us got back in my car and pulled onto the frontage road, right behind a pimped out car with look-at-me wheels and a gaudy paint job. And on the back of that car? A student driver sign! And I was stuck behind a student driver in a pimped out car going 18 miles an hour down the road back toward the freeway.

Just about the time I was getting fed up and started yelling at the idiot that he/she could get a ticket for going too freakin' SLOW, I noticed a Sheriff's car in my rear view. So there we were, a three car caravan, led by a pimp mobile, four quilters with a screaming driver, and a Sheriff.

Up ahead, I saw a sign for the freeway with a left arrow. We were all in the left lane, approaching a stop sign about a half block back from the freeway sign, and the pimp mobile driver signals a left turn. Thinking he/she was going to turn into a parking lot, I pulled around into the right lane, with the idea of moving back into the left lane before the left turn. Ha! What I didn't realize was that the left turn lane continued on past the first stop sign up to the second stop sign and the two lanes were divided by a 6" white line--which, as I came to learn, should never, ever be crossed in California.

So, yeah, I ended up putting on my blinker and trying to move back to the left lane, and in doing that, I not only crossed the forbidden 6" line, but I also cut off a Sheriff freakin Sergeant who didn't notice my blinker. After that, there were some honking horns and flashing lights, and while the pimp mobile moved off at a snail's pace, the Sheriff and I stopped for a chat on the side of the road.

Why is it that each year, when my new vehicle registration arrives, I don't remove the old, expired registrations from my glove compartment? Do you have any idea how difficult it is to locate a current registration when a Sheriff is glaring in the window at you and you have about eight different registrations? And proof of insurance cards? Well, since Hubby has us on the 6-month plan, those little cards arrive so frequently, it's hard to keep up. A vague memory of Hubby saying, quite recently, that he'd just paid the car insurance flashed into my head, and with a sinking feeling (after handing the officer two expired insurance cards) I realized Hubby probably hadn't given me the most up-to-date card.

I'm pretty sure the officer thought I was a complete idiot. And he was probably right if the way I felt at that point is anything to go by. While I didn't cry, I DID apologize and he let me go with only a 20 minute lecture about 6 inch white lines and the fines that can be levied for drivers without insurance.

On the remainder of the drive back to Sacramento, we calculated that the fine for driving without insurance is two retreats and a block of the month quilt. And while a citation for simply not having a valid insurance card (but having insurance) is a "fix it" ticket, the payment of court costs associated with the ticket would be a layer cake. No telling what a quilter's cost would be for getting caught crossing a 6" white line, but I don't think I want to risk it.

Do you have 6" white lines in your state? Here in California, they're mostly found dividing the left turn lane from the other lanes of travel. In the interests of becoming a better citizen driver, I now pay close attention to making sure I don't cross the darn things, which means I seem to do a lot of swooping and swerving to maneuver into the turn lanes before the lines begin. Try it and see. I'm really not altogether sure it's safe to drive that way, so I'm not sure how long my good citizenship efforts will last.

And you know what? I forgot to ask that Sergeant if I could take his picture for my blog. But I DID ask Hubby for my proof-of-insurance card as soon as I got home! And next time we plan a road trip, I think I'll ask someone else to drive.