is my happy birthday.

i plan a day of indulgences.  starting with chocolate cake (4 layers) and champagne for breakfast.  ok, that’s a lie.  i’m not much of an early morning eater and i also will be driving in less than 30 minutes…..so let’s do the usual breakfast of toothpaste and mouthwash.  check check.

1st order of business…pack up the sewing machine.  it’s doing some goofy things.  time to spend some quality time with gary or ryan.  and NO it’s the the fuzz machine

and look what mom showed up with yesterday!  ATC’s from her and karyl.  remember our family craft day?  well, mom and karyl perused my bag of ATC’s and decided to make some themselves!

aren’t they just cute?  mom’s is the one on the right.  it’s a little bag (her craft was a fabric bag filled with little zip lock bag jokes)  karyl’s is on the left and it’s a mini tag album.  you can’t see but it opens up and there are teeny tiny tags inside just like the real one we made (that was her craft)  tooo dang cute.  well not really.  how can something be tooo cute?  it was just the right amount of cute.  and i LOVE them!

ok, time to start the day!

this is a couple shots of the back of joyce’s quilt.  she is putting it in a quilt show this weekend so i don’t want to spoil her fun by posting the front.  besides, my “front” shots stink so hopefully i can get some good ones at the quilt show. 

and i don’t think i posted here the pix of the postcards i made last week:

and a close up:

and….brotherly love:

within seconds of the shutter shuttering, ian had kaiden in a choke hold and was banging his head on the floor.  kaiden slipped out of the hold and body slammed ian (on the quilt of course so there was padding).  just kidding.  sort of.  totally kidding.  NOT.  seriously, just kidding.

yes indeed.  the boys went a hunting so we went a quilting.  this time it was at karen’s.  and just look at what she got for me!

it’s a “sewezi” table.  and it’s terrific.  sew lovely to have my machine at the proper height.  and yes, sewing from 6am until 10pm still creates a back ache but not nearly like it used to.  it’s a snap to set up and take down, comes in a little carrying bag and it even has wheels.  i like it aLOT!  see that little pincushion?  want a closer look?

how stinkin’ cute is that?  a PINK velvet pincushion.  we were not doing trinkets at this retreat but miss karen cheated and gave me the pincushion and a box of pearl pink pins.  i love it!  thanks mucho karen!

we each managed to meet our goals for the weekend!  i finished up another set of trucks and tractors and the dirt roads for both quilts.  now to embroider on a few of the blocks, square them up, set them with triangles, attach the roads……seems like a lot left to do!  that was all i brought to work on so then karen got out her scrap basket for me to play with.  i made several bases for postcard embellishment.  yea me!  karen finished up 108 batik blocks and then 30 funky blocks.  yea karen!

naturally we needed a treat or two:

the great thing about these cappo mugs, is that an entire bottle of champagne fits in two mugs!

back to work the minute i arrived home.  had a delightful late afternoon and evening with the longarm.

and, the D O G is back.  yea.

clean your sewing machine?  i’m kinda haphazzard about it actually.  but it’s regular.  like before i have a big weekend of sewing, i’ll give it a good going over.  if i’m sewing for an hour or sew at night, i probably just clean it on sunday.  so i cleaned and oiled it in preparation for our craft day.  really i did.  i’m procrastinating because sometimes sara or cleo pop in here…..and i’m pretty sure they’ll tell gary.

and just in case that’s a little dark for you, here it is with flash:

holey fuzz ball batman!  clearly needle punching on wool creates….fuzz.

i’m cleaning it out right now.  shhhhh.  there is no reason to rat me out to gary.

so my little sister karyl was in town and we decided to do a craft day.  everyone was to decide on a “craft” and make up 5 kits.

kelly bailed because she got h1n1.  BUT before bailing she called my crying saying “i’m just not crafty.  i can’t find anything to glue together.  can i just bring lunch?”  i said sure, but make it good!  ended up mom and karyl brought lunch on account none of us wanted to eat anything kelly had touched.  kel stayed in bed.

so  i did recycled wool sweater journal covers.

and i’ll post close ups for you in thumbnails

and yeah, there’s only 4.  i spent my time making kelly’s and didn’t make one for myself.  ain’t i nice?!?!?

mom’s craft was a bag of zip lock bags.  she made the bags for us.  and assembled the little zip locks.  all we had to do was hee haw over them.  VERY easy craft to do!  even kelly could have done it!

the little zip locks contain little jokes with props.

karyl’s craft had us making cards.

she used her “cricut” to make the little cut outs.

and something called a “tag mini album”

a fun day was had by all……oh and lisa’s craft was a ooyey gooyey peanut butter chocolate cheese cake.  we ate it-we didn’t make it~!

at night or in the morning.  i’m a morning setter back.  really makes me feel like i get a deal.

unlike mary, i’m more of a sunrise girl.  and yet here are a couple sunset pix i took last night.  life’s kinda funny.

ignore the leaves!

my clubhouse tree

i’m going to spend my extra hour working.  what are you doing with yours?

they’ve come and gone.  but oh what fun!

a little miami dolphin

and a little tampa buccaneer

a bit of light reading before bedtime

hanging on, my agent is calling me

and a couple bunnies.

(get it?  reproducing like rabbits!)

i’ve started an effort to unplug a bit.  i dumped farmtown to start.  whew.  how do you spell “relief”.  at first it was fun for ian and i.  then it got competitive.  deciding what to plant that would score the most money etc.  sigh.

and i’m trying to get my email situation under control.  take it from me, it is definitely NOT one of those things that will go away if you ignore it.  it just grows to gigantic proportions and pretty soon in the middle of the night you’ll hear a knocking on your bedroom door and it’s the freaking “inbox” that just wants to tell you that you now have 4000 emails in your box and 900 of them are unread.  just in case you were laying there thinking “gee.  i wonder how many emails i didn’t get to today”.

so this morning instead of picking up my house for guests that are arriving in a couple hours, i spent an hour deleting and saving (but not in my inbox).  i’ve been working on this some all week.  i’m below 3000 now.  at this rate i’ll be eating turkey leftovers before i get it under control.  ugh.

today is family craft day.  besides picking up the house, i need to organize my “craft” and make kits.  i wonder if they’ll think i was slacking if i just point to a pile of wool and suggest picking out 3 pieces to make mittens from?

well, i’m not getting anything done sitting here so i’m off to hook up the ladies and slap on a face and greet the world with a big “hulllo!”   speaking of that….yesterday i went back to the clinic (for more fun and games i tell ya) and as i’m crossing the parking lot, a woman jumps out of her car and runs after me.  i immediately assume my “high karate” position but she just wants to tell me that she likes my hair.  seriously.  i wouldn’t even roll my window down to tell someone that but then, i’m a slug.  after my appt. i’m in the drug store getting my new drugs and i run across my aunt who i haven’t seen in years.  of course i do.  i wearing zero make up (and without makeup i have no eyes), am dressed like a hobo (with oatmeal smears on one shoulder and chocolate cookie crumbles on the other) and i have leftover hair on.  OF COURSE i run into someone i haven’t seen in 5 years.  i almost spun around without acknowledging her but then thot “OMG get over your freaking self self.  it could be another 5 years before you run into her again”.  so i did (get over my freaking self).  and one of the first things she said, was “i love your hair”  from now on, i’m always going out with leftover hair.  i’m never washing it in the morning again.

and i’m still here yapping.  ok, i’m off to …oh, i already said was i was gonna do.

note to kel……get better (she’s down with h1n1) you can come sew with me another day (she hates sewing)

if i hear one more time that the world at large was affected by the death of “he whom i refuse to name”  i’ll….idk what i’ll do but i’ll do something.

but i’m not cranky because the D O G is still gone and i promised i would not be cranky the whole time.  i kinda wish i could stay awake for 2 weeks so i wouldn’t miss a minute of it.  but i think that would make me cranky.

i feel a bit scratchy again.  in my throat.  i got meds.  i reacted to said meds with hives over roughly oh, idk maybe 110% of my body.  quit meds with the hope that it had enough time to kill the bug.  the bug is back.  dang.

after playing last weekend, i am WORKING my fanny off (would that THAT was true) this coming weekend.  i can’t afford sick time again.

but before “work time” i have a day of play scheduled.  my sister from billings mo, is in town for a visit so we are planning a “craft day” at the clubhouse.  5 of us were supposed to come up with a craft to do.  3 of us (me, mom and karyl) followed the rules.  kelly and lisa bailed.  kelly couldn’t find her glue sticks.  lisa feels compelled to work for the man.  but again….i’m not crabby about it because….yeah, you already know why. so anyway, i’m prepping kits for wool mittens and wool journal covers.  i think i’ll set up the needle punch attachment on my sewing machine for them to play with embellishing.  i’ll probably have to do kelly’s for her or she’ll get the needles all gummed up with her glue.

oh!  did i tell you the news?  carin is gonna have a little bambino in may!  very exciting.  puts our quilting plan back a bit but that’s okay.  a NEW baby!!!!  well most likely it’s a new baby, today when i asked ian if he still hoped it was a little sister in mommy’s tummy and he said “no, i think i’d rather have a big tractor back ho”.   hard to believe ian is coming up on his 3rd bday next month.  where does the time go?  so come the end of may, carin will have a 3 yo, a 2yo and a newborn.  yikes! can you say BUSY?!?!?

ok, that’s all the news that’s news and some that’s well, not news.

so every year in the fall and in the spring, karen and i take turns having a slumber party while our men go hunting together. last weekend was “the” weekend and as chris’ man was also leaving town, she horned in on our slumber party. just kidding, we loved including her so much we made her host it! and whoa baby did we get loads done!

we started at 8am on friday and sewed until 3 am saturday morning. caught a few hours of zzz’s and went back at it all day and night saturday and until mid afternoon on sunday. our “theme” was buggy barn pattern. we all had 3 patterns all cut out and ready to sew. chris and i hit the ground running with “convoy”. and although we both had “ripping sessions” we managed to get all the blocks for 1 quilt pieced on friday. chris went on to work on the “roads” and the blocks for another convoy quilt and i switched off to another pattern. this is chris’ blocks all layed out:

and more “trucks and tractors”

and trucks and tractors need wheels:

and here’s chris’ fat cat on her blocks. don’t the blocks look swell with the wheels added?!

and i’m not kidding when i say “fat cat”. every morning it gets 2 tablespoons of yogurt on the counter. and cries if it doesn’t get it fast enough.

karen was a wizzbang as usual. she got snowflakes made:

and trees…..technically NOT a buggy barn pattern but we let her slide…..

and purses! sooooo cute but fiddly she says. i may or may not have to make one of these!

after i made 18 of the truck and tractor blocks (no pix….they look almost exactly like chris’) i switched over to flowers and made 60+ of these. they will have a cream or pink wool circle applique’d in the middle.

chris went with a halloween theme-she made table cloth, place mats and napkins out of a fun holiday line of fabrics:

as well as jammie pants and 2 pillowcases (no pix) for each of us!

we exchanged ATC’s:

and had a wonderful set up in her dining room.

and the TRINKETS! oh my. i was a slug this time and slid by with a lovely jelly roll and charm pack of the “authentic” line of fabrics by moda. i came home with a candle, pin cushion bling, a sewing trash bag/pin cushion, a little magnetic case for binding supplies, a honey bun of “swanky” fabrics by moda, chocolates, car gel fresheners, hand sanitizers, and i’m probably missing stuff but i haven’t unpacked my “trinket” bag yet!!

chris spoiled us and it was great fun! here’s hoping that her man goes hunting again when ours go but we know it probably won’t happen again until there is a blue moon and the stars all align with the planet pluto (which is no longer a planet so we’re screwed) next time it’s karen’s turn to host. i think our “theme” is closet projects. i just hope i can find something around here that’s not finished up……