Ergo, You Bought Me a Falcon . . .

Have you seen that insurance commercial? Just in case you haven't, the guy finds a way to justify buying a falcon because he used the money he saved on his insurance. I love the commercial, because it's exactly the kind of mental gymnastics I go through to justify my own non-essential splur-chases.

Take today for instance. But first, the background.

When I was in the grocery store last night, I saw this magazine:

Have you seen it? I'm a sucker for holiday mags. After I got home from the store and put my groceries away, I started browsing and found I was captivated by the "decorating with skeletons" section. How cool are these ideas?!

And, of course, there are more in subsequent pages, but you'll have to buy the magazine to see them and find out how they arranged them--you won't be disappointed.

Anyway, after looking at the magazine last night, one thing led to another, and soon I was surfing the internet for skeletons. I finally found the ones I liked best today, and ordered two from the Spirit Halloween store's website.

Yes, the skeletons were a little bit pricey, but here's the thing: Over the past several months, I worked a fair amount of overtime, and the office manager discovered an error in the way one of the categories of overtime pay was calculated. When all is said and done, I should be getting a couple hundred dollars extra on my paycheck tomorrow to fix the error. Cool, huh? I just wonder what Hubby will say when I tell him my office manager bought me two skeletons!

Just Some Stuff

Madame Samm is rounding up Ghastlies quilters for a blog hop. If you've caught Ghastlies fever, go visit her and see what it's all about.

While visiting Madame Samm and trying to get in on Ghastlies fun, I ran into a Google/Blogger problem: I can't comment on some blogs when I'm logged in as ME because Blogger tells me I'm not authorized--using my log on--to view the page. I ran into the same problem on another blog I tried to comment on, but I have no problem with most blogs. So far, it seems to be the blogs with embedded comments on the blog post page rather than the type with a separate pop-up comment page. But maybe that's coincidence. Frustrating! I've posted my problem on the Blogger Help Group forum, but I've not had anyone post a solution yet.

I don't know if you'll find this as funny as I do, but I'll tell this little story anyway. Hubby cooks dinner on weeknights and over the last year or two, I've discovered that he really has no interest in cooking. And I think I've mentioned that if he has no direction on what to cook for dinner, we end up having steak. So what I've tried to do in the last several weeks is make out a menu plan, have the ingredients on hand, and assemble the week's recipes for those dishes that require recipes. Tonight Hubby was supposed to cook a simple chicken cordon bleu, broccoli, and rolls. I had the chicken cordon bleu recipe printed out for him (there's a link to the recipe above--one of our favorites), so I was a little taken aback when he called me at work to ask where the recipe was for the broccoli rolls. What a hoot!

I talked to Soccer Son today. His Lovely Wife to be Someday had tipped him off that he HAD to read my blog because it was hilarious. Yeah, uh huh. But, as he pointed out, he's not the one who posted it on my blog. Sheesh!

Here in California, talking on cell phones while driving--unless they're hands free--is against the law, but it seems like everyone does it. And maybe you'll recall that I hate talking on the phone, so I still don't have a cell. And that, of course, allows me to view my fellow travelers with haughty distain as they drive down the road, flaunting the law.

Driving home from work tonight, while stopped at a traffic light, I noticed the older gentleman in the Lexis next to me had his hand up to his face. I was slightly behind him, so I couldn't see clearly, but of course, I assumed he was talking on his cell. About a half mile further on, I was stopped at another light when I noticed the same guy stopped behind me, again with his hand up to his face. There was something odd going on through--I could tell right away that he wasn't talking on his cell, but what was he doing? As I kept glancing back and forth between the rear view mirror and the red light, I finally realized the guy was playing a harmonica and singing. That's a first for me!

I'll leave you with this thought: Rock on, while it's still legal.

And on to the Next . . .

The project I took to work on during tea and stitchery was the binding of the Ghastlies. And I finally, FINALLY, finished it late Saturday night. I don't prewash my fabric, so after taking the last stitch, I threw the quilt into the washing machine and transferred it to the dryer just before closing my eyes for the night. The first thing I did when I woke up this morning was to pull it from the dryer--voila!

Done! And I can finally say I've now completed 6 of my 11 quilt goal for the year.

So what's next up? Well, I've been telling everyone who will listen to me that I really, REALLY need to make myself a new purse, and I have what I think would be an excellent design in mind, but . . .

Do you remember this pattern from a couple years ago?

I fell in lust with it and started collecting fabrics when the pattern first came out. I took everything I needed to quilt camp in August 2009 and worked on it the entire time I was there. Before I could come close to finishing, Halloween was upon us, and I put it aside.

LAST year, I pulled it out again, and worked on it a bit, but I was distracted by other projects. Again, I folded it away.

Then THIS year, I suddenly remembered it was languishing in the dark somewhere, and this morning, I crawled around on my hands and knees, peering under the tablecloth that hides everything I squirrel away in the Sweat Shop, and I found it!

I didn't remember how far I'd gotten, but when I put the "pieces" up on the design wall, I realized I only had two blocks left to make. I made one of them today:

Here's a peek at some of the "pieces" up on the wall:

I should have the last block done in a few days, and then I can start digging orange, black, and cream fabrics out of my scraps and stash for the piano key border. Perseverence just might pay off this year!

Thrifty

Are kids ever too old to be spanked? 'Cause I'm thinking even though Soccer Son is 30 years old, I owe him one! Sheesh!

I've seriously never thought of myself as naive in any way, but I guess yesterday's post proved me wrong, eh? I'm happy so many of you were amused though. THAT joke's certainly on me!

I thought I'd show you some of my safer thrift store finds. No Post It notes on any of them!

I came across this little Limoges creamer at Goodwill. It's really not my style, but I thought it might be collectible so I brought it home. There are no chips and it's initialed on the bottom "J.E."--presumably the person who painted it.

And just in time for the upcoming season--

I've admired these pumpkins at JoAnns and elsewhere the last couple years. When I found this little one for 99 cents, I thought it was a fairly good deal.

You know how I love cherries, right? Even though there was just one salt/pepper shaker rather than a pair, it has CHERRIES on it, so I couldn't pass it up! It looks like Mary Engelbreit, but I don't know if she ever designed for Sakura. Debbie Mumm has, so maybe it's one of her designs? I don't know, but I think it's sure cute.

Buttons. Who could pass those up?

I found the hand embroidered dish towel at a little thrift store when I was on the way to stitching and tea at the quilt shop, so I brought it for show and tell. I tried to tell them I made it, but I couldn't keep a straight face. Well, and I'm sure Gran wouldn't have believed me, even if I was a more talented actress!

Finally, and NOT from the thrift store at all, THIS book came home with me yesterday:

I've picked this book up a couple times at a couple different places and admired it--I thought maybe it was time to buy it and bring it home. Cute projects in it!

My friends and acquaintances on the east coast have been on my mind today. Manager Man, the Wild Child's boyfriend, is in the Hamptons to work at one of the restaurants his bosses own, and so far he's fine. I can't think of any other personal friends or family members in the direct path of Irene, but I know several bloggers who may be affected and we have friends a little further inland who will at least get some nasty weather and other inconveniences. We will all just have to wait and see what tomorrow brings, although with the anticipated power outages, it may be awhile until they're all back to normal. In the meantime, I'm hoping and praying this storm isn't nearly as bad as has been anticipated.

While Mom's Away . . .

As it turned out, Friday was a pretty good day. Back when my office celebrated Professional Whatever Day (what used to be called Secretaries' Day) in April, the firm gave each of us a certificate for a half day off, and I chose to redeem mine on Friday. My "free" afternoon started with a visit to a few thrift stores and then I joined Gran's last-Friday-of-the-month-tea-at-the-quilt-shop bunch. I wanted to give you a little bit of an idea of what tea's like without photographing all the participants and then having to explain to them that I have a blog and if they'll just let me publish their photos, they'll be famous. So instead I photographed the table with the food. Simpler that way.

Gran sets a cute table with vintage linens and we all bring yummy stuff to share and eat. Then we do hand work and tell funny stories about our husbands. (It's surprising how many of them seem to watch the Lifetime Channel! Who'da thought?)

You'll notice I mentioned I shopped a few thrift stores first, right? I'm back thrifting again. In fact, I've been doing a little treasure hunting this week. One of the little things I found was this girl's wooden jewelry box:

My thought is that I'll do some crafty paint and paper/altered art thing to it to make it cute and then I can store stuff in the drawers. Probably sewing stuff. Maybe buttons. You get the idea, right? When I turn it into a treasure, I'll be sure to show you.

Anyway, I brought it home Wednesday night and had it sitting on the trunk in the living room that serves as our coffee table. When I came home from the Friday tea, I could tell the Wild Child and Soccer Son had both been admiring my find. See their Post It notes?

The top one is the Wild Child's. You can probably understand where she gets her nickname. I'm not sure what Soccer Son was trying to say about "pearls," but I'm sure the Wild Child will edit his note when she gets home from work tonight. And I guess the fact that Soccer Son can't spell "necklaces" despite the fact the word's written on the drawer also says something about why his nickname is sports-jock-related and not something like "Webster."

Kids!

Coming Soon to a Computer Near You?

I noticed yesterday that Carol's back at her blog (and all's right with the world). And she started back with a post that touched on the need to cut back on fabric buying. Well, that kind of hit home with me, especially since I'd just written a blog about ordering some fabric on the internet and forgetting that I'd done it. And sitting in the Sweat Shop, looking around at my stash--or trying to find a home for anything new I bring in--makes me realize that for me too, it's time to sew more and buy less. Have you reached that place in your quilting life yet?

For some of us, it might be a financial decision. For some of us, it might be a space decision. For some of us, it might be a decision based on the knowledge that no matter how long we live, we're NEVER going to be able to use everything we like and buy. And for many of us, it's a combination of those three things.

I've been thinking for some months now that I'd like to host a quilt along. You might remember I mentioned that possibility some months ago when many of us had geared up for a quilt along and ended up not participating because it didn't feel like the project for us.

Since then, I've had the idea percolating a bit at the back of my mind, but there have been other things going on. So it's still just a bit of an idea, but it's starting to develop. Here's what I'm thinking about so far.

There won't be much direction about how much fabric you need ahead of time, and there are two very good reasons for that: (1) I want us all to use stash fabric and scraps, and (2) I don't know what the quilt will BE yet--and probably won't until it's done. I'm thinking of calling this quilt along something like Kim's Big Scrappy Quilt-Along Adventure. Catchy name, eh?! It will be kind of like a mystery quilt but different because I don't really like mystery quilts!

Most of the blocks will actually LOOK like something. What I mean is that I like star blocks, house blocks, tree blocks, etc. I'm visualizing something a bit like a row quilt. Or a medallion quilt with houses, trees, and "stuff" in the center and stars all around. Take a look at THIS quilt I made. It won't BE this quilt--nothing as elaborate and I seriously doubt that I'll make you do applique--but this is a bit of the feeling I'm thinking about--a quilt that's cohesive in subject matter even though it's made from scrappy fabrics.

I think the quilt will be the size of a large wall or throw quilt when we're done. I think the blocks will be of various sizes. I suspect we'll be making a few blocks each week. And I think you'll probably have a front row seat on the design process, since I'll be doing some of the designing as we go. Scary? Maybe. But if we end up with extra blocks that aren't used in the end, they can be used for another project--after all, the idea is to use scraps and stash, be creative, and have fun doing it.

I'm going to try to get my thoughts ironed out a bit more in the next couple weeks and then let you know what the plan is. Do you think this might be a project you'd be interested in participating in?

How Did I Miss THAT?

If you've read my blog for a bit, you probably know how freakish I am about grammar and punctuation. So how did I not know that March 4th was National Grammar Day? I had to look back in my blog to see what I was doing that could possibly have taken priority over a day dedicated to the celebration of good grammar--turns out that's when I was working crazy long hours and stayed half the night at work the night before with my boss trying to get a project out the door.

Maybe you wonder what got me started with the grammar thing today? Or maybe you already know?

Old Navy. Old Navy partnered with a number of well known colleges and universities around the country to market a line of football T-shirts. Unfortunately, the tees were printed with "Lets Go!!"--which is missing an apostrophe between the "t" and "s." Really, how does that happen? (Click HERE to see the tee.) And how will the Old Navy TV mannequins sell these things?

Do you know what else I missed? The Wet Seal T-shirt error. The T-shirt was printed with a fairly tacky slogan that said "If Your Single, So Am I." (Photo HERE.) "Your" should have been "you're," as in "you are." It's a contraction. Sheesh!

On a positive note, The Wild Child hopes to become an editor once she completes her education. It seems there's a real need for editors, just as long as marketers and advertisers wake up and realize it.

Next year, remind me about the March 4th "holiday," okay? I hate to miss these kinds of crazy, fun, wild celebrations!

Fabric Amnesia

Do you ever order something online and forget you've ordered it by the time it arrives? I don't do it often, but every now and then, it's like my body double went shopping and didn't tell me.

Late last night, someone brought in the mail, and there was a squishy Priority Mail envelope for me from a quilt shop. Really, I didn't even SEE the envelope until this morning as I was getting ready for work, and for the life of me, I couldn't remember what it could be, and I didn't have time to open it before leaving for the office.

You probably aren't quite as anxious to find out as I was, but even so, I'll show you what I found when I came home from work and opened the package:

See that dark fabric underneath? Even as I was pulling it out of the package, I couldn't remember why I'd bought it. Isn't that funny? Finally, when I looked at the charm packs and saw the Luna Notte pack, I remembered.

For last month's Le Petite "club," Miss Rosie's human rewarded each of us who made the George Schnibbles with a layer cake. Except in typically generous Carrie Nelson fashion, we each received TWO layer cakes and a little pattern. Here's a photo of my "haul"--

See the Luna Notte layer cake? Well, I finally remembered that I'd decided to purchase a "neutral" fabric to go with the layer cake and make something; and because the charm packs were on sale, I bought one of those too--and a couple more to keep it company on the long journey from the fabric shop to my mailbox. After all, we all need travel companions.

I can hardly believe I totally forgot about ordering that fabric! After all, it's not like I could forgot what Carrie Nelson sent us. One of these days, I'd like to do something nice for her, but I'm not sure what. If I ever find Aladin's lamp, I'll send that genie off to visit her. Or if she ever needs a kidney, I'm the gal to ask.

By the way, her new book, Another Bite of Schnibbles, will be out soon. It's definitely on my Amazon wish list.

It's Official!

I hadn't told you before, but when my boss decided to take a leave of absence to spend three months with her new husband in China, I decided that maybe it was time to have carpal tunnel release surgery on my left wrist--I had the right one done last June.

My left wrist wasn't as bad as the right, but the surgeon wanted to do it last August. I told him I'd rather try a cortisone shot and wait and see. After being off work for six months, I was kind of anxious to get back, for all sorts of reasons.

In the meantime, the cortisone shot didn't seem to do much, and my left hand goes numb whenever I drive or talk on the phone--not horrible, but life would be better if both hands worked right.

So, anyway, I talked with the people I answer to in my office, saw the surgeon last month, and got the workers' comp approval for surgery; today I scheduled it. September 20th. Check in at 6:30 a.m. No caffeine before. I think that's the worst!

I'll probably take a little blog break when I have surgery--but I'll remind you a couple days before. Four weeks away and I have a lot of quilting and craafting to get done. I'd better get busy!

Pip Berry Garlands and Other Temptations

I've been thinking about autumn off and on. Have you? I thought that when I finally got done dressing up the house for summer, I just might not want to change things again until Christmas, but here it is, just a few months later, and my thoughts have turned to Halloween and fall decorating. It doesn't seem to matter that the temperatures are in the 90s. Just like the swallows coming home to Capistrano each year, every year I start mentally preparing for fall sometime in mid- to late-August.

When I went to my friend Imelda's home a couple months ago, I greatly admired a patriotic garland she had in her dining room, and after I got home, I went on line searching for something for my own home. Eventually, I stumbled upon 1804 Primitives on eBay and found they had lighted pip berry garlands--with several color variations on the pip berries--with rusty stars. Perfect! I decided to order one with cream colored pip berries which seemed to be perfect with most holidays and seasonal decorations. Here's a photo of the one I ordered:

It's not a close up, but you can click over to the seller's store from the link above to see these better--and all the other cool and crafty things they carry. (I also added silicone stars to the lights on mine--they don't come with them.)

So, anyway, when I started thinking about fall and Halloween decorating, I had to admit that the white pip berries just weren't whispering "autumn" to me. So yesterday I visited 1804 Primitives again ordered another one--I'm pretty sure it was the "harvest mix" color. Although now that I look back at the website, I have to wonder why I didn't order the 4 foot pumpkin pip berry garland? Also, not instead of. Well, maybe it's because I DID order several other things besides the garland, and one has to draw the line somewhere, right? Sheesh! I swear I have no self control.

Soon the Ghastlies will be quilted, my package from 1804 Primitives will arrive, and it will be time to get the Halloween and fall boxes out of the garage. I've also been thinking about a new papier mache craft I'd like to try this year.

So how about you? Have you been thinking about autumn yet?