Shell's Specialty of the Day

It's Official, I'm the new owner of Embroodles!

2012-01-08T10:21:00.001-06:00

OMG, It has been SOOOO long since I've been on here. So much going on and so much to share with y'all. First of all, I am no longer teaching--after having the second back surgery in 5 years (third major surgery in those same 5 years) I have left the classroom. I've been making my way back to the world of the living slowly but surely.

Second, my partnership with the owner of Embroodles has turned into me OWNING Embroodles and Kim is starting up a new website for her clip art! Of course, we are still partners as far as we are concerned, but legally, now I'm the owner of Embroodles and she will be the owner of her website. So I will be incorporating Embroodles and the work I'm doing there to share with y'all. Of course, any of you that own embroidery machines are more than welcome to come browse the website, join our yahoo group and in general just come be creative with me. Y'all will be the lucky ones to see digitized designs before they are put onto the website. And of course, you know I'll enjoy getting your feedback on any/all the designs that I'm working on or that will be going on the site. So be sure to check out Embroodles website at www.Embroodles.com or by going to our facebook page!

Oh and before I forget, all of you that are my normal blog buddies that already have websites of your own, if you want to give me any helpful hints and advice on how to keep from going crazy or how best to get your site noticed by even more people I won't turn away from listening to you! This is an established site, one that I've been working with the owner and she and I have considered ourselves partners since almost the beginning of the site. So its not like I know nothing about the site--but I've never been the one in charge of RUNNING it. Of course, I'm going to ask Kim to continue helping me for a little while; but I don't turn down suggestions without listening to them first! ;)

I'm sure there is LOTS more to say and to start looking for things to show y'all--been so long since I've been here, maybe I need to reintroduce myself! Maybe y'all forgot me!

Distractions!

2011-07-14T22:38:00.001-05:00

I have wondered so many times about being diagnosed as an adult ADD case. Have I ever been diagnosed? Have I ever even seen anyone to diagnose me? No! Do I really think I'm one of those with adult ADD? Not really, I think what happens is that there are too many distractions in life and I apparently don't have enough focus on any one thing to stay on task. I'm sure there are many that will understand this.

It goes along like this: I go to the kitchen to get a drink. I see a stack of unread mail and go to open it---not getting the drink. Take the mail into the office area to read the mail--seeing something on the computer screen blinking. The unread mail gets put down and the computer is checked. Oh great, I have mail. Open the email inbox, see something of interest I go to that web page. That site makes me think, "Ooooh that is so cute, bet Kim and I could come up with directions and digitized design similar to that for the website." Let's check yahoo to see if she's online. Yep, chat for a bit, show her my idea taken from website idea. I have completely forgotten the mail, email, the drink.

Chat a while longer, start testing designs for her. A needle breaks, go get upset at machine, walk out of the room and find a sock the cat that has drug up the hallway. Go down the hall and pick up the remaining laundry and go to laundry room. On the way, see dishes in another room that were never taken to the kitchen, go back to that room to get the dishes. See a new computer game that DH has put onto that computer. Sit down and start playing the game (forgetting the dishes). Get bored with that and head towards the living room. Oh great, one of my favorite shows is on tv. All right, its a marathon. Get totally wrapped up in it.

The dogs come up wagging their tail and woofing. "Do you gotta go outside?" Take the dogs to the back door and let them out. Gee the table never got wiped off last night. Suppose I should do that. Go to kitchen and realize, I'm thirsty. Go to get a glass from the cabinet and there are none there. Empty the dishwasher, reload it. Go look for other dishes. Hmmm, wasn't I in here before to get these? Take them back, finish loading the dishwasher. Take the dirty dish rags to the laundry room. Hmmmm, why didn't I start this load earlier? etc., etc., etc., etc.

Seems like I have this kind of thing happen all the time. I have this "to do" list that is so long it could probably wrap around the house several times. My "I want to try that" or "to be made" or "make or find a pattern for this" list is even longer! I go to "research" or find a tutorial or pattern for something and then I find blog after blog to read through and find fabulous ideas for everything but what I'm looking for. Distraction: fabulous blogs from awesome "normal" people that write about their passions and share their knowledge with others. Is this distraction a bad thing? No, but it does keep me from doing what I intended to do in the first place.

I have an extensive stash of fabric. I decide to straighten up the stash and try to organize it a bit better. While going through the fabric I hit the DISTRACTION! And what exactly would that be? "Oh look, how cute that fabric is!!! That would be so cute as a ______ for ______." Now all I have to do is find the pattern for it. Is that a bad thing? Well, it isn't IF you find the pattern, put it with the fabric and put the rest of the fabric away. But that rarely happens--at least not in an organized fashion.

I start going through the patterns looking for something specific---and DISTRACTION: "Oh this would be cute, I forgot I had this pattern. OMG this is adorable, when did I get this? That would be so cute for.... Oh and this would fit.... I really need to find the right fabric for this." Now when you have so many patterns that you have them sorted by category and then sizes (who cares which company its from) and you have enough to fill an entire filing cabinet PLUS some, its easy to forget patterns that you have. Or when your children haven't been toddlers in 20 years you forget what baby and toddler patterns you have. So you start going pattern by pattern pulling out the ones you think you want to make "NOW." So much for looking for "the" pattern for the particular pattern.

Now I have a ton of fabric on the table because the "other stuff" never got put back up. I have about 10 patterns I want to make "NOW" sitting on the table. I look at the mess and try to figure out what I'm going to do now. I sit down in my sewing chair, swivel around to the computer and DISTRACTION: I see a really cute quilting pattern that would be awesome for..... But I'm not really a quilter. I play around at putting things together. Maybe I can watch the Quilting Quickly section .... and find an easy way to do that quilt. Oh that is awesome. That's so quick and easy. But if I make it will .... really like it? Probably not; but maybe I could make it and if they don't like it I could always give it to someone that really needs it. Now what fabrics would look good put together?

While at the computer, Kim buzzes me and says she has some new designs that she needs tested. Oh what a cute idea for a baby bib or bib and burp set. I've got the diapers already, I think I'll go ahead and test on them. The tests are always almost perfect if not perfect the first time. I'll just find the fabric to make the coordinating bib with. What's this? Is it another DISTRACTION I see coming my way? Ah, yes it is! Now I have cloth diapers and onesies sitting out on the table, too. What was it I started looking for in the first place?

I've forgotten. And there is another full day of not getting anything done--but I have tons of ideas. Guess I need to write some of these ideas down before I forget them altogether. Now where did I put the last "working" notebook? Oh yeah, its on the shelf. Which one is the current book? and OMG its yet another DISTRACTION! I start looking through the ideas books. Oh yeah, I remember when we started working on this embroidery set. I wonder if Kim and I ever got this set of designs finalized and finished? I wonder which hard drive these designs are on?

And I wonder why I never get anything finished. I wonder why I start looking at things a month or two ahead of time for the grandbabies "events" and never get anything completed on time (if at all). My children think I'm a horrible grandparent because of this trait. And I probably am. I procrastinate and then I have all these DISTRACTIONS that get in the way. Oh and we haven't even talked about the daily distractions of doing laundry, dishes, normal housework (oh yeah, that's how this all started) and then of course there's the "One-eyed Monster." What you're not familiar with the one-eyed monster? Sure you are, most people call it the TV! Y'all excuse me while I go find another DISTRACTION to keep me busy again!

The day of OMG's!

2011-07-13T21:40:00.000-05:00

Lordy, Lordy, Lordy, what a day! I just don't know where to begin even! The daughter of a friend of mine (her children and my children grew up together) that just had her first grand child--although the baby decided it was time to be born, baby Emma was still premature and mother and baby are in separate hospitals. Poor Rachel had not even seen Emma yet the last I saw on fb. OMG I can't imagine having a baby and not being able to see or hold her.

One of our best and dearest friends from the Krewe of Harlequin died last night and we did not find out until today. What a way to start the day--learning that a dear friend lost the battle of his time on earth. I've cried off and on all day from that. OMG I can't imagine how our krewe will be continue with court costumes as it has for the past 36 years. OMG is this why he kept trying to get DH and I to be there for all the cutting and making of head pieces, and court costumes last year? Did he know that he was possibly training the next ones to be able to continue with this for future years?

Today marks the one week mark of when I had back surgery--with a total of 50+ staples in my back. The three drains are gone--they were gone of course before leaving the hospital. I was admitted to the hospital on Wednesday of last week and released on Saturday--with my trusty muscle relaxers and pain killers in hand. I've actually done quite well. I'm able to walk most of the time without my walker and have gotten to where I'm only taking 1 pain killer in about 12 hours (unless it gets excruciating) as opposed to the 2 every 4-6 hours that they were prescribed. OMG how it hurts to stand or sit; and even more so to lay on my back.

My 21 month old grandson came over and found the tile and grout cleaner that was used to clean the tile and grout in the living room today. Only thing is, he found it by picking it up and spraying it in his face! We spent a panicked 10 minutes with DH standing in the shower completely clothed trying to flush DGS's eyes and skin with water; Trying to find the poison control center phone number--finally had to put poison control center in computer search engine to find a number to call. Why is it that the number that should be most prominent on a chemical is the number not listed ANYWHERE!!! Spent the same time trying to calm DD who thought her son was being drowned--because he was screaming so much with us trying to flush the chemicals off him. Did I mention I just had back surgery 1 week ago and I'm not supposed to be doing anything "normal" like bending, twisting, lifting, etc. and I couldn't think of ANYTHING but making sure this baby was ok. My second DD who is "due any time" was trying to calm the sister down, calm the grandson down, get me to go sit down, trying to find the phone number, and she feels like crap and is so ready to have this baby--but the baby keeps saying she's not ready yet.

I got up this morning and found all the plates that had been stacked up last night and were sitting in the kitchen on the counter were NOW on the floor--upside down with 2 of the 4 plates broken. Thank you animals that think that they are my dishwasher! OMG how am I supposed to get this cleaned up? I HATE having to rely on someone else to do everything that I've been doing all this time. I hate having to wake up DH just to tell him, "um honey, we have a problem, our plates from last night are all over the kitchen floor--can you go clean it up?"

My paperwork from the school office was never submitted for my retirement paperwork to go through! OMG this is like less than a month before my retirement is supposed to be finalized and it was never submitted!?! And of course the people in the office that have control of this are on vacation, out of the office or just ignoring the phone calls. Did I mention I've just had surgery and can't just hop in a car and go take care of this?

It has felt like there were so many more OMGs for today; but I don't know how many more could you fit into one day? I appreciate y'all letting me vent! I will be back (hopefully tomorrow) with all the "stuff" I'm currently working on! Until, hopefully no more OMGs for the day.

2011-06-04T06:23:00.000-05:00

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Living Without Cell Phones!

2011-03-10T10:15:00.000-06:00

The other day I wrote about some of the changes that have occurred in the last 50 years. Today I received (ok, so I didn't GET it today, I just opened it today) an email entitled Growing Up Without a Cell Phone. I've got to share this email with you. I have no idea who the original author was; but they definitely hit the nail on the head!
Hilarious! Growing up without a cell phone

If you are 36, or older, you might think this is hilarious!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning.... Uphill... Barefoot... BOTH ways...yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that I'm over the ripe old age of forty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia! And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!

1) I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the library and look it up in the card catalog!! or pull out the encyclopedias!!

2) There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!

3) Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our ass! Nowhere was safe!

4) There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!

5) Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car. We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished, and then the tape would come undone rendering it useless. Cause, hey, that's how we rolled, Baby! Dig?

6) We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that's it!

7) There weren't any freakin' cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn't make a damn call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your "friends". OH MYGOSH !!! Think of the horror... not being in touch with someone 24/7!!! And then there's TEXTING. Yeah, right. Please! You kids have no idea how annoying you are.

8) And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent... you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

9) We didn't have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your screen guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen.. Forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE! and if you lived in the country like me you didn't even have an Atari 2600!!.

10) You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!! NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?!

11) There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little brats!

12) And we didn't have microwaves. If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove! Imagine that!

13) And our parents told us to stay outside and play... all day long. Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort. And if you came back inside... you were doing chores!

14) And car seats - oh, please! Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on. If you were lucky, you got the "safety arm" across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling "shot gun" in the first place!

See! That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled rotten! You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1970 or any time before!

Regards,

The Over 40 Crowd

What is 50 years?

2011-03-05T13:53:00.003-06:00

Fifty years....half a century....half a lifetime....a drop in time infinite....a mere spec of time to God....an entire lifetime for some....an unachievable goal for others....today....a birthday....an anniversary.....gold.....old....young.....What is 50 years really?

Fifty years ago, computers were huge machines that took entire rooms or buildings to house that processed information at a mere fraction of what man could do with pencil and paper and yet look at computers today. Computers can access information from across the world, across space, across the years with the flick of a button---or as in the case of i-pads and i-phones, with just the touch of a screen. They can fit into the palm of your hand, into just the smallest of microchips that can transform so many things into a working computerized system. Who would have thought 50 years ago that the computer would be a personalized object that so many people now feel they can't live without?--and I'll admit, I'd have a hard time doing without one.

Fifty years ago, we had mostly stay at home mothers who were there when school got out at the end of the day. They wore aprons and cooked home cooked meals that were on the table about the time the man of the house got home. Those same aprons wiped away tears, washed skinned knees, dried wet hands, and accepted flour from the evenings dinner rolls or dessert. Moms were able to use a kiss to "heal" skinned knees and elbows and sent their children back outside to play. They weren't worried about where their children were--because they were always within calling (by mouth, not by phone) distance either outside or at a neighbors house. And she knew all the neighbors. Do you know all the people that live around you? on your block? I certainly don't.

Fifty years ago, people had kitchens with ice boxes (now called refrigerators) that held ice cube trays that had to be emptied and refilled with water. People had milk delivered that was then put into the refrigerator. Grocery stores were mom and pop owned operations and you could have groceries delivered to your door. The refrigerators weren't mini computers with TVs inside the door, ice, water, and maybe even your favorite beverage delivered through the door. The food inside the refrigerator didn't hold foods that were processed to death--they were fresh from someone's garden or from the local butcher.

Fifty years ago, going to a fast food restaurant (or any restaurant for that matter) was considered a huge deal and was a special occasion. Now we stop by this place or that one on the way to work for coffee, another for a quick bite for lunch and because everyone is too tired to stop and cook, we go out for dinner. And people wonder why we're such an unhealthy and overweight nation. It doesn't take a genius to figure that one out. All the high carbs and high fats that you get from all the prefixed meals, no more playing or walking---after all, we drive around the corner to see friends instead of walking and all our game playing involves the thumbs and fingers--and we wonder why we can't lose weight. If we had to work the fields (even small ones) to tend our vegetables that would feed us all winter and until the next harvest, if we played outside and walked everywhere, we might not have to worry about what we ate. Sure our parents, grandparents and beyond ate real butter, eggs and bacon and fried foods in pig fat. But they also did more physical work in a few hours each morning (let alone all day) than most of us do in several days worth of living. They didn't have to worry about high cholesterol and fatty arteries----they worked it all off and there was nothing extra to store.

Fifty years ago, we had party lines and you had to wait for someone to get off the phone to make your call. And chances are good there was always someone listening in on what you were saying. Oh wait, 50 years ago, not every household had a phone. Well, I suppose you could say that now. After Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Mississippi Gulf Coast, many people never bothered to have "land" lines reconnected. After all, everyone in the family had access to or actually had their own cell phone number. We carry the little phones around with us like they were gold. We can't seem to get off of them. We play games on them, talk to people on them, use them as our walking rolodex, listen to music on them, watch tv on them, watch videos on them. Phones went from just a simple means of talking to someone that wasn't in the same building with you to a way of connecting with the entire world through them.

Fifty years ago, John F. Kennedy was President of the USA. We've averted the Cuban Missile Crisis, participated in the Korean War, endured the Vietnam War, lived through the Cold War, and have been involved in the war against terrorism that I wonder if will ever end. And now there is talk of another Korean War and a Civil War in Libya. We've seen good presidents and bad--I won't say which were which as each person has their own opinions on who was/is good and/or bad. Was it the person that made it good or bad? The congressmen/women we elected that made him good or bad? The circumstances they were in office under? I wonder, if the same presidents were President during a different 4-8 year period than when they served, would the same outcomes have occurred? Makes for an interesting debate topic--one I'm sure my son-in-law could debate for hours--I just don't feel like debating.

Fifty years ago, a handsome young chaplain was stationed in Korea while his beautiful young wife was in Lakeland, Florida giving birth to an innocent baby girl. A lot has occurred in the last 50 years. People have come and gone. Musicians have changed music--or in some cases just borrowed the old stuff and made it new for the younger generation. We've put a man on the moon and brought him back. Space may still be considered a foreign and ominous "place"; but it isn't nearly as foreign as it was 50 years ago. Cars have become bigger or smaller (depending on the design style), faster, sleeker, less classy (in many cases), and more fuel efficient--after decades and decades of being fuel guzzlers. The beautiful woman who bore that innocent child spent 69 years on this Earth before meeting her maker. The young chaplain? He's still a chaplain--and has been for the better part of his life. He's ministered to young and old and will until the day he meets his maker--of that I'm sure. The innocent baby girl? Well, she isn't nearly as innocent and knows a whole lot more now than then. She's grown up and married and gave birth to three wonderful children. She has divorced and remarried the second man of her dreams---dreams aren't always what they seem when they are first dreamed. In doing so, she also got two more wonderful children. She's had the privilege of watching all five of those children grown into young adults--watching each graduate high school and watching three marry and getting pictures from the fourth wedding. The youngest has introduced his (latest) dream girl to her and hopefully is taking things slowly as they are both still very young. She's had the privilege to see two of her three grandchildren and the fourth grandchild is due in August. This same woman who started out so innocent and protected has grown up through so much of a changing world. She's graduated from high school and college and earned her way in the world teaching very special children for 25 of the last 50 years. She's had joys and pains--as all of us that have lived 50 years have done.

Fifty years, I used to think of people that were 50 as being OLD and joked about them being over the hill. Mom used to say that when she got to be 50 she would no longer age--she would spend the next 50 years counting backwards. Well she didn't get to 0; but I'm so grateful for everyday that I had her with me (us). Fifty years--seems like a long time doesn't it? To a small child 50 years is forever from now. For a college graduate, it is the time that they will spend working and hoping to retire at some point. To the 87 year old father of the woman, it seems like just yesterday he had his daughter placed into his arms upon his return from Korea.

To me? Today seems just like any other day--its a day I can spend with my loved ones and family members, a day I can receive well wishes from friends I've known since junior high school or to ones I only know through games on the social network. Today, is my 50th birthday. No big surprise that I made it to 50 I guess. We're living in an age where it is rare for people not to see their 50th birthday. But still, I feel like its somewhat of an accomplishment that I've made it this far. I'm blessed beyond imagination through God's love and hopefulness in me and people in general. I've lived in so many places and experienced things that only could be experienced because of Dad being in the military, me being married to one man for almost 20 years and my being married to another for 7 1/2 years.

Our experiences in life--good or bad-- are what makes us. And the past 50 years worth of experiences are what makes me ME! There are things about me that some don't like. Guess what--there are things about me I don't like either. But there are so many more things that I hope people do like about me. If not, I'm not going to try to be molded into someone that fits into someone else's perfect mold of who I should be. I am Me, I can't be anyone else. Whole or broken, with or without the different pieces of my personality, my being, my ME-ness--I am who I am.

Now I am starting on the next 50 years of experiences. I wonder what new things will be achieved in the next 50 years. Hopefully, I'll be around all 50 of those years to find out. So, who among you will join me for the next 50 years of experiences? Will you be someone I experience new (or old) things with? Will you be someone that just passes through my life unnoticed? Will I be someone that just passes you by unnoticed? Who knows. But we have the next 50 years to experience it together---one way or the other.

New site and AWESOME Give Away!

2010-02-19T15:53:00.005-06:00

I don't usually toot other peoples horns; but this horn really should be tooted! The new site is the DIY Dish and it is giving away not 1 but 2 sewing Janome sewing machines (1 is an embroidery machine) Check out thier video!

In their own words:
What is the surprise? Well, we’ve been “dishing out” some of the latest and greatest DIY projects in sewing, crafting, scrapbooking, home decor, kid projects, machine embroidery, hand embroidery, and more! Take a look!
It’s a brand-new series of videos — it’s free — and it’s going to be a whole lot of fun! Join us!
To celebrate the launch of this new show, our friends at Janome are letting us give away TWO (yes, TWO!!) dream machines! Someone is going to win the Janome 350e EMBROIDERY machine and a second person is going to win the Janome DC4030 SEWING machine! Now how cool is that?!

Dinosaurs

2010-01-27T08:10:00.013-06:00

We've been talking about dinosaurs this month in my class. We have learned so much about our prehistoric friends. Its amazing how much the film industry has tainted our vision of these magnificent creatures. Do you realize that many of the dinosaurs did not all live in the same time period? Did you know that the idea of cavemen running from dinosaurs is all fictional? There were NO cavemen (or any other men) on Earth while the dinosaurs were roaming around! What's more amazing is when you take the height or length of these creatures and compare it to things in today's world.

Did you know that the great Woolly Mammoth weighed 3 tons? That is as much as all the steel and concrete in the Washington Space Needle, a full grown adult hippo, or a HUGE truck! It was as tall as many trees (15 ft. tall) and as long as a Morey Eel or a Hammerhead Shark (11 1/2 ft. long). I wouldn't want to see him in a dark back alley! LOL But then, none of the dinosaurs were very small. Even the Pteranodon had a wingspan of up to 33 feet! That is bigger than the width of my classroom.

But I think what is more amazing to me is the size of their brains in relation to their body size. One of the largest dinosaurs, the Stegosaurus weighing in at 6,000 pounds, 30 feet long and 9 feet tall had one of the smallest brains! The brain was only the size of a walnut! Imagine having to function, let alone live with a brain that small when your body was so huge! I imagine that they would not know much more than pure survival instincts--how to eat the plants around them and how to move as fast as they could when a carnivore was in the area!

As usual, we've come up with some really cool crafts to go along with this unit (I apologize to those of you with young children for not keeping up with the past months of crafts we've done). Of course, if it weren't for the awesome folks on the web and other teachers and mothers, I would not have found these neat things to do. I'd like to share a few of them here that we've done (and the links back to where I found the original ideas if I can find them again!).

Ok, so I have scattered them within the post again as opposed to putting them all at the end--breaks things up a bit that way!

1) The picture at the top of this post was simply done with sponges and dinosaur stamps. The dinosaur stamps I got from Oriental Trading Company--they have a big supply of ready to do crafts and "junk gifts" for kids or parties.

2) The picture of the Triceratops was done with an outline of the Triceratops that I found in a children's coloring book. I put the outline on construction paper and then covered the entire area with glue. I then used colored sand to sprinkle over the glue. Shook off the extra sand and allowed to dry. Warning: The construction paper will begin to curl as it dries, so using a tag board probably would have been better for this project.

3) The picture of the Great Woolly Mammoth (yes its hard to tell that's what it is) is a picture of a skeleton a man somewhere in the northwest has. I had seen an idea that utilized glue and paint. I wasn't real sure how it would work--but it turned out (in person anyway) really cool. We covered the skeleton with glue and allowed it to dry overnight. The next morning we took tempera paint and painted over the entire thing. The paint showed darker on the areas that weren't covered in glue--and brighter on the glued areas.

4) Our Stegasaurus came from an idea from a stay-at-home mom and her idea for teaching dinosaurs to her toddler. It was a spur of the moment idea for this mom at No Time for Flashcards . Instead of using clothes pins, we used craft sticks that we painted and cut/broke into varying lengths and glued to the back. We finished it off with a googly eye glued to the head.

5) Tyrannasaurus Rex came from the DLTK's Crafts for Kids dinosaur section. It includes the templates to print out and color. We sponge painted ours and glued the templates to tag board. We used craft sticks in between the front and back to keep it stiff. I guess we kind of goofed by only putting one leg on the bottom of it, but it just didn't look right to us with both on there! Oh well!

6) The Pteranodon was one of the last projects we did; but it was also one of our favorites. This is definitely a craft that will take lots of supervision of younger children and may take lots of adult help as this craft is made from two milk jugs and hot glue! Danielle at Danielle's Place has so many neat things to see and do. We use her ideas many times throughout the year. But for our lessons on dinosaurs this was an awesome art project. She provides the templates and shows just how to draw it on the milk jug and how to put it together.

My assistant, Micki, and I hope that you have enjoyed seeing our projects. And if you need more information on dinosaurs, go to Enchanted Learning--they have many more craft projects and fact sheets on SO MANY more dinosaurs than we even knew existed!

Drama, Drama, and More Drama!

2010-01-26T07:32:00.003-06:00

First let me apologize to my followers for not keeping up better than I have! There has been so much going on in my family that it seems I just haven't been able to catch up! And it doesn't seem to be slowing any--if anything, the month of January has sped things up to the nth degree!
As you can see, my daughter had her baby in September--and what a cutie he is!!! She was the maid of honor at her sister's wedding January 15. We had everyone here except for one son--he had just made 2 trips in December to come to Mississippi (once for Christmas and once for his Dad's wedding), and couldn't come on such short notice again in January. There is another grandchild due in March--Dave's son's wife is pregnant. So that will be 3 little ones added to the family in a year! The youngest (and tallest) of the children will be graduating in May from high school. Oh and let's not forget that baby Austin and his mom moved to Utah right after her sister's wedding--then called and told me she had gotten married!

In the mean time, I've been trying to get things sewn--including the crib bumper guard railing (which unfortunately I don't have any pictures of), a larger than baby size quilt for Austin, curtains for the house, a couple of dresses for my granddaughter and 18 tunics for a local high school band, complete with trim and fringe.

So you wonder why I haven't been blogging much? There just don't seem to be enough hours in the day. That doesn't mean that I haven't been keeping up with all of you. I may not always comment, but I do lurk and read through what you all have been keeping busy with.
To all of my dear blogging friends in Australia--Happy Australia Day!

Hen Parties!

2009-09-09T07:57:00.003-05:00

My Dad used to say that any gathering of a bunch of women was nothing more than a hen party! Nothing but a bunch of squawking old hens! Hee Hee Well, I guess that is true in most respects. But you get a bunch of ladies together for a baby shower and you get lots of squawk, ooo's, ahhh's, and squeals! Janyce's two baby showers were no different! The one held this last weekend brought in old and new friends alike as well as family (well adopted family).You remember Forrest from the last post? This is Uncle Tony's Mom, Momma Yvonne. Like I said, we just adopt family to add to our family. You see that Forrest is just as comfortable in Momma Yvonne's arms as Uncle Tony's.

My Dad's wife was not able to come, but she and Dad sent this adorable Adopt-a-Bear. This bear is sooo soft. Scott, my son-in-law, has started sleeping with him so that "it will smell like Daddy" before baby Austin gets it. This wasn't the only adorable creature that showed up at the shower. There was also an alligator, a dinosaur, and I think I saw a frog, too! Good thing all of these are STUFFED animals. The house could get just a little bit scary if these were live critters! LOL

This shower allowed me to give a beginner lesson of cake decorating to Athena, our other daughter. She's been asking for me to teach her how to decorate cakes. I should send her to classes at our local cake decorating classes; but her work schedule makes it difficult to do so. So I have taken this opportunity to teach her how to star a cake. That was one of the first things I learned after icing a cake. Of course, her Dad had already iced the cake, so I couldn't use that experience as a learning experience for her. I started her out starring the duck. The she took her yellow stars and alternated with my orange stars for the borders. I think she did a pretty good job for the first time that she's ever done anything with a cake decorating tip! I added the duck prints and writing and blue dots on the borders. We used frosting to glue plastic baby pins to the sides and the rubber ducks to the top. And, Voila! we have a rubber ducky baby shower cake!

This was also my first time to attempt making a diaper cake. I used size 2 Huggies, toys, a hygiene set, some baby t's and of course, rubber ducks. It isn't perfect and finding toys that are small enough was kind of tough. But all in all, I think it turned out kind of pretty.

Family is Great!

2009-09-03T14:42:00.003-05:00

Family is great even when they're not REALLY related! As an Air Force brat, I've often seen my parents become the parent or grandparent to many guys (and women) that were overseas and away from their own families during the holidays. I've seen them take in my friends and never minded when they were called mom or dad by them. So I guess it is only natural that I carry on the tradition.

People have asked many how many children do you have? I never know exactly how to answer them. Sometimes I just say alot. Other times I say, "well I gave birth to three and got two more when I remarried, so I have five." Other times I just say five and let them wonder how I got through life with five children. But there are other times, when I want to sit and really think about it, I come up with a LOT more than five. I always had girls and boys at the dance studio that I was always a backstage parent with that I called "my kids" (and still consider them my kids even though they're all grown up now. There were the kids on the swim team with my daughters that always came running up and called me Momma that I considered "my kids." And of course there are all those friends of my children that spent as much time at my house as their own and my kids were the same way at their houses. Those young adults I still consider as my kids. Then when you add in the folks that are so close to us that they ought to brothers or sisters to us---well that adds up to a large family for an only child!

Currently, there are three of my husbands Navy buddies that are considered family. I am Aunt Shelly to their children and they are known as Uncle Mike and Uncle Tony to mine. And the third??? Well, he's just a youngin' himself, so the girls call him their older brother Vince. Uncle Tony is currently in his last days stateside before going to the forbidden land in Iraq. Well, I call it forbidden as I can't imagine anyone actually wanting to go there. I'm sure there are plenty of people that consider the US as forbidden land; but I really am not fond of any of our friends and loved ones going over and spending the necessary time allotted there. Anyway, Tony is currently staying at the house with us--giving all of the kids that are still in the area a thrill as Mom (or someone) cooks dinner most every night allowing them a chance for a free meal.

One of Buggy's roommates has a cutie of a son, Forrest, that I have "adopted" as one of my grandchildren. I am known as Gramma Shelly to him and even his Dad has begun to figure out that Gramma Shelly and Grampa Dave really consider Forrest as much a grandchild as we consider Kahli and Austin and baby Roberts our grandchildren. Buggy and Teri (Forrest's Mom) decided that since Uncle Tony was home they just HAD to have this little army camo hoodie set for Forrest so Forrest and Tony could have pictures together. Well, Forrest didn't take long to wrap Uncle Tony around his little finger--and even though he didn't want to have his picture taken, tell me he isn't enjoying the time with Forrest! Yeah right! He loved every minute of it!

And do you think that they could have gotten much more of a better match for Forrest to wear? I swear there really is a baby inside all that camo somewhere! Oh, and can you see why Forrest likes Uncle Tony so much??? He's finally found someone that has as little hair as he does! No matter that this child's true relatives live away from him, he knows that he has family here that love him, too.

The Crafty Side of Things

2009-08-29T18:03:00.014-05:00

Ok so its been awhile since I have shown the crafty side of things around what I've been doing. No I'm not showing the house yet. Instead, I'm going to show some of the things I've been doing at the school. We have been talking about sea life for the month. So everything is built around the sealife theme.

Paper Plate Port Hole: For this, we cut out the inside of a paper plate. Painted the outside with brown paint and then hot glued brown buttons to it. It could be done in greys (or any color you want you port hole I guess) as well. We attached the sticky backed precut sea life foamies to blue construction paper. To make it look more like we were looking through glass into the water, we covered the construction paper with saran wrap. The back has a rectangular piece of thin card board glued to the back to make the whole thing a little more sturdy. We then took pop tops from drink cans, slightly bent them and hot glued them to the cardboard so it can be hung with ease.

3-Dimensional Sea Star (NO they are NOT Star FISH): This was one of the easiest projects we did--I won't say the messiest as we had a LOT of messy projects this time--but definitely one of the easiest. This is sea star that was printed from one of the preschool coloring book sites (no I don't remember which one) that we then cut out. As sea stars are not flat, we took a cotton ball and glued it to a piece of construction paper. Then we glued the cut sea star over it, making sure that all around the center of the seastar was down around and sealed over the cottonball, giving it a puffed up middle. Each leg also glued down. Glue was then smeared (yeah, that's the fun part, you get to smear it with your fingers!) to cover all of the area in white (ok so some of ours didn't cover completely). We sprinkled (NO, we POURED) a light-orange colored sand over the glue making sure every bit of the glue was covered. We tipped it over so the excess sand could be reused on the next one and VOILA--a sea star, complete with the texture somewhat resembling a real sea star.

Fish Bowl: This is another easy project. And as you can see, again it uses paper plates (No, I didn't take stock in paper plates). We painted the backside of the paper plates blue then cut them in the shape of a fish bowl. We painted green and orange squiggly lines to make it look like grasses and coral. Along the bottom of the plate, we spread glue and sprinkled colored sand for the bottom of the fish bowl. Unfortunately our glue didn't dry properly and it didn't turn out as we'd hoped. Now for the fun part--as we enjoyed eating as well as glueing the next pieces to it. We used colored, baked goldfish crackers, whales crackers and the Finding Nemo jelly candies. We glued them onto the plates (as well as ate some of them). After covering all with saran wrap you have a fish bowl that you don't have to worry about finding dead fish floating at the top the next morning.

Paper Plate Sea Turtles: Once again, with this craft idea we started with two paper plates and thin cardboard cut roughly into shapes that resembled legs, a head and a tail. The cardboard shapes were hot glued to the inside (the side most people eat off of). The second paper plate was then hot glued on top of the first plate and cardboard pieces. The end result should be that of two plates bottom sides out with cardboard pieces sandwiched in between them. We painted one side totally green, the plate and all cardboard pieces. After it dried, we painted the other side so that everything was green. After everything is thoroughly dry, we got glued precut foam pieces to make somewhat of a symmetrical design (and no two of ours were alike just as it is rare to find two sea turtles with the same markings) to one side of the plate turtle. Gluing on googly eyes was the finishing touch this turtle needed to come to "life" for the students. They loved being able to pick out the colors and shapes for their turtles, not to mention painting them. I don't know if we have any green paint left in the bottle--but there was plenty all over the tables and disposable aprons they wore!

On to the the next project, and final one using paper plates for this unit, the Paper Plate Crab: This picture does NOT due this cute thing justice. The legs and claws were from a preschool site (no I don't remember which one). It originally had a body and face that the legs and claws were to be colored and glued together. Instead we painted both sides of the legs and claws and the bottom of a paper plate red. After everything was dry, the paper plate was folded in half. The legs and claws were then sandwiched in between the folded plate and all was glued together. Once the glue was totally dry and we knew the legs would NOT fall off, we glued fluffy red pipe cleaners to each of the legs to give them a little bit of depth and some texture. In addition, we took red leaf shaped "sequins" and glued two onto each claw. Once again we glued googly eyes to the paper plate and drew on a mouth with paint. We had used LOTS of glue on the legs so it took several days (in our humidity) for the legs to dry where we could hang them up. Just be aware of that in case you don't have somewhere flat to lay it until it dries.

Shoe Fish: I think I lied earlier. This was the EASIEST by far of all the projects we did for the month. This simple fish is made from a tracing of the student's shoe. Trace the shoe onto construction paper. Cut it out exactly to the shape of the shoe to begin with. After it is cut, then decide where the mouth will be. Cut a v-shaped slit for the mouth. Then cut the heel into the tail fin. Make it the shape you want for the fish. from the remaining construction paper that was cut from originally, make fins and glue to the body of the fish. Use any scrap construction paper to add "distinguishing marks" to the fish. Glue on a googly eye and the shoe print is now a fish!

Coffee Filter Fish: This craft was made by simply coloring a coffee filter with wash off markers. Be sure to cover as much of the coffee filter as possible with color. Also (as a word to the not so wise like me) be sure to have SOMETHING UNDER THE COFFEE FILTERS when coloring!! The coffee filters are thin enough that even the washable markers go through and will leave marks on your table. Luckily they ARE washable so they come up fairly easily. After they are colored, sprinkle with water--do NOT soak them totally or the color will fade out completely. The colors will meld together into very unique patterns. Allow to dry overnight. Once they are totally dry, begin cutting the coffee filter into a fish shape. We didn't use a pattern so each of our fish were different shapes. Use the left over filters to make extra fins, designs on the fish, or save to use when you need colored tissue paper for a collage later. Glue on a googly eye. We covered ours in saran wrap on both the front and back as they are working in our building and we have come in to find water has dripped and changed some of our art projects. As these have already been "water bled" on purpose, we didn't want any more water getting on them.

And for the final project that I'll show, I have saved our favorite project for last. It may not be the cutest; but it could possibly be termed the most original of the works we did. This one did not come from another teacher nor a search through the internet. My assistant and I came up with this one on our own. It is our version of Jellies: This jelly (not jelly fish, as they are NOT fish) started out as a full piece of newspaper that was painted and allowed to dry over night. The next day, we took a second full sheet of newspaper and filled it with torn and crumpled up pieces of newspaper. We pulled the corners in and tucked in all the sides and then bunched them tightly in the middle. that was then all taped together securely. The painted newspaper was then placed over this and the corners were brought together and then scrunched together over the first layer of newspaper. Again it was taped securely together. Crepe paper streamers were then cut into lengths of about two feet. We used two shades of pink and two shades of yellow. Each streamer was cut down the middle in half (well approximately--we weren't real accurate with things on purpose). These were were all glued randomly around the bottom of the newspaper . We made sure that several pieces covered the area we'd scrunched up so that it was hidden. Once hung, they resembled jelly blobs with their "stingers" floating in the water. The breeze that comes through our hallway's end door helped with the "illusion" as the crepe paper streamers gently fly on the breeze.

This is a general idea of what it all looks like when hung in the hall. Of course several of the things were hung on the wall as well. But this is what people see when they first come into our end of the hallway. Hope this gave some of you that have little ones an idea of ways you can help teach them about sea life.

Field Trip to IMMS-Marine Education & Research Center

2009-08-27T13:48:00.003-05:00

Outside my window...It is cloudy, it was raining earlier in the day and down right storming in the morning--threatening to ruin a great day. Yet the rain cleared and left us with just a cloudy day so we were able to go on our field trip.

I am thinking...that today was one of the best field trip days I've had with my class. I've had some great field trips; and this one is up near, if not on the top, of the list.

I am thankful for...the paid workers and

volunteers that work at the Institute for Marine Mammals Studies Marine Education and Research Center. Those folks are AWESOME. They took my special needs students and gave them a field trip experience that was one that was so great. They treated them similar to general education students and at the same time were patient and ready to do things WITH them.

From the field trip...our students were able to see and touch (in some cases) hermit crabs, blue crabs, horseshoe crabs, seastars, shark teeth, shark & dolphin skulls, sawfish saws, sea life fossils, and so much more. They were treated to a big (theater size) screening of Bill Nye the Science Guy & Mammals. They learned how a sick sea turtle was nursed back to health and then returned home to the sea. They were able to play touch screen games including games that taught about sea life, recycling, the food chain, and the coral reef.

I am wearing...a goofy grin and my field trip shirt. Two years ago, we were going on a field trip and I wanted all the kids to be dressed in the same shirt so that they would be easily recognized as being with my class. I used an iron on transfer paper and made a design that was put onto shirts for the students and then I made smaller images that went on the pocket of shirts for the staff and frequent chaperones (people like my DH that goes on most all of our field trips to help us out, or parents that go everywhere and do everything with us). I pulled those shirts out of the (virtual) mothballs and wore it today. My assistant and my husband wore their shirts as well.

I am reading...up on a few fish that we saw today that we'd never seen before. For instance, have you ever heard of a sea robin fish? Their fins appear as if they're flying when they're swimming and it almost looks like they are walking as across a sandy area. I have found out that they are thought to be part of the flying fish family as their tail fin will make the fish appear to jump out of the water when they are in shallow water. But the actual scientific classification does not put them into the same family.

I am hoping...that my students enjoyed this field trip as much as I did. I know that there were several times when the staff and volunteers of the center were watching us trying to figure out who the "kid" really was--is she just a kid or is she the teacher? Hmmm, I'd say the answer is BOTH! LOL I'd hoop and holler when the students got answers right or would touch things. I was the one with all the excitement as we went from one exhhibit to the next. Even though my students don't always show their enjoyment and enthusiasm (like a lot of other people I know as well), I certainly hope that they felt as good about this trip as I did. I know that the 3 chaperones that were with us, the bus driver and my teaching assistant all loved the trip as much as I did. So that only leaves the students. Unfortunately, there's not really a way to determine if they had a good time or not--as a post trip evaluation. Besides, they were all so tired when we got back that I think they were all just sort of zoning.

I am creating...a picture slide show or maybe I'll put it into a power point file all the pictures that were taken so that I can share the experience with the students' parents and other teachers so that they can see the fun we all had. I am also trying to write up an article for our local newspapers that will provide exposure for the Education and Research Center, exposure for our school, and some good words for the folks that helped us out so much today.

I am praying...that our school/school district will have enough funds to allow us to go on more field trips throughout the year. Field trips can provide experiences that nothing else can--not even virtural field trips. They have the sights, sounds, smells, and feel of things in a particular environment that you can't always describe or teach.

One of my favorite things...the discovery of this new Marine Education and Research Center!!

A Simple Woman's Journal Entry--or is that a Woman's Simple Journal Entry

2009-08-26T08:02:00.004-05:00

Do you sometimes feel like you have nothing worth blogging about? Do you feel like there isn't anything to say? How about using these thought provokers to get you started. You can then keep either add to it or use as is. I have borrowed this idea from Amanda (and I thank you for it. Sometimes I need that little bit of help to get me started, and this is perfect to do just that.).
For Today...August 26, 2009
Outside my window...it beautiful and hot...my dogs and my "adopted dogs" (the ones that showed up on Saturday and we haven't found their owners yet) are enjoying the almost cool air. Its under 75 so that's cool for this time of the year in the mornings.

I am thinking...about a lot. Babies, babies, babies, babies--in the grandbaby format!!!! 'Nuf said!!!

I am thankful for...the ability to love my friends and family without worrying (any longer) if they love me back or not. That has been hard for me to do. Previously, if I loved them, I felt they should return the love--even if they don't show it. I have finally (ok so I'm slow) figured out that I don't have to have them love me back for me to love them.

From the kitchen...hmmmm I think I better clean the kitchen before I start cooking in it. Since cooking last night only involved the heating of chicken nuggets, maybe I should actually cook tonight. Then again, maybe not! LOL

I am wearing...green--or as my youngest son used to call it for years Geen, Mommy, you're wearing Geen!!!! Green scrub pants, lime green top, and my most favorite of all shoes (well at least the ones I wear the most--guess that makes them my favorite) New Balance tennis shoes. I wear them to work, I wear them to go shopping, I wear them most all the time that I'm not at the house where I can go barefooted!

I am reading...Swimsuit by James Patterson

I am hoping...for so many things, that there is no way to categorize them. I guess my biggest hope was answered yesterday when Dave was hired for a great position at the new Best Buy! He begins the new job Sept 12 and his current job ends on Sept 9. There is a possibility that he will be able to continue (especially during holidays and big sales) on a part time basis at JCP.

I am creating...the bedding set for Gigi's baby! I have the bumper guard about 1/2 way finished. As we are down to 40 days until the due date, I suppose I should get my butt in gear and get it (and all the other things that are planned for the new little one) done!

I am praying...for healthy pregnancies and babies....for a new satisfaction with Dave's new job...for a good day at the IMMS on our field trip tomorrow...for so many things.

Around the house...we are working hard to get the remaining boxes unpacked, find room for things that we really NEED to keep or feel we HAVE to have and de-clutter and get extra junk out of here. It seems the more we try to de-clutter and throw things away, the more things we have come in or acquire in one way or another.

One of my favorite things...is my DVR !!! OMG what a wonderful device. The ability to record shows (ok, no biggy, you could always do that with VCRs), to pause a show in process to go grab a drink or a potty break, to play the same show picking up where you paused instead of missing the "good part" of the show! is the greatest!!! That way we don't miss anything in shows we're watching and NOT taping! Awesome, Awesome, Awesome!!!

Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you...

It may take hand over hand assistance, but who is to say that our special students shouldn't be allowed to do things that our general education students do? Pouring a carton of milk (8 oz.) is easy for most of us and most of our children. But teens like this young lady get as, much if not more, out of the experience of cooking as her "normal" peers. I am so thankful for my teaching assistant, Micki. She and I have a wonderful class; but our class would not be half as wonderful without her!

An Untimely Choice For Me

2009-08-10T14:39:00.002-05:00

At the beginning of this year (was it really 8 months ago--yes it was 8 months ago to the day no less!) I had made the decision that I was finally going to get my butt in gear and start making all the quilts that I see so many others make and I was going to be as good at it as my mother and grandmother were. I was all gung ho about making the 3 different quilts I was starting. I was working on them diligently.... and then.... well..... the excuses started... the time ran short... the patterns wouldn't cooperate... the people were supportive and I never looked back to see how many complaints I got about my block being the wrong size... I never went back to finish the "Make it up as you go along" quilt.... I got through the first couple of months of the calendar quilt and...... well there hasn't been anymore done on it or any other quilt. I look around at all the blogs that I started following (YES, I do still lurk and read them, just not daily as I did before) and I see these absolutely beautiful quilts that have been completed by so many. I see crafts and ideas and organization coming out the wazoo! Yet I haven't seemed to be able to take any of the ideas, the creativity, the organization and do anything with any of it! So I have discovered that I made an UNTIMELY Decision back in January. I have realized (and should have realized this 8 months ago) that I don't have the discipline, determination or dexterious skills to handle one let alone three quilts at this time, nor any time in the near future.

I have some baby blankets--as I refuse to call them quilts as I cannot quilt and no longer claim to even be able to piece them together--to make for my 3 grandchildren and one precious child that I call my adopted grandchild, Forrest, that doesn't have any grandparents that live close to him. I will be putting fabric together or sandwiching batting between fabric in the attempt to make these blankets; but I refuse to call them quilts. Others may, but I will not.

In the event that my life finally finds a point in time where I can slow down long enough to focus, concentrate, and become disciplined enough to complete projects; then I may once again take up the endeavors of learning to quilt. To all of you that have been a part of my brief quilting existence and hopefully an even longer blog life yet to come, I thank you for using the blogosphere as a means of support for those of us that can't do what you do, being there giving your ideas freely, sharing your creativity, allowing us in on your organizational hints, and for allowing us to view a glimpse of the lives of true quilters. I will continue, if allowed, to follow your blogs and your daily triumphs and occassional defeats. To those of you that have become true quilters...my hat is off to you and I profess my adoration for your skills.

Update Part 4

2009-08-10T08:11:00.005-05:00

It seems that I have lost track of time and what number of this update should be. Seems like just yesterday I was telling everyone about my newly born granddaughter--who is now 3 1/2 months old! And NO I still haven't had the opportunity to go see her. Hopefully I will be able to see her at Thanksgiving if not sooner. She is so beautiful. I still say she looks just like her Daddy--but I know she will be as pretty as her Momma.

It also seems like I was just announcing that my daughter was going to have a baby. We are now down to 8 or so weeks! That just doesn't seem possible. We still don't have one of the side rails for the crib she was given--it is still in the woman's storage unit. And I just can't seem to light a fire under my daughter to get her to call about it so we can have the crib set up and ready! I don't have the bedding made yet for the crib, nor the curtains and other accessories to match. Of course, I've just been able to find the first of the fabric pieces I'll need to make them. Do you know how hard it is to find space themed fabric that isn't cartoons? The remaining fabric I guess I will have to bite the bullet and order from somewhere online. The place I've found the fabric I like the best is http://www.fabric.com/. But now that I have some fabric I found at Wal-mart (and of course, its a fabric that Wal-mart has discontinued carrying!) I have to see if it will "match" or at least coordinate. And that's hard to do when you don't know for sure the colors in the fabric! OK OK I'll quit griping about it.

I'm proud to tell you that we are now expecting our 3rd grandchild as well. Dave's son, Zach and his wife, Amanda, announced that they are expecting and will be due in March. That will make 3 grandchildren in 18 months. I told our other two children (one of which is still in high school)--"Ok, every 6 months someone has announced they're pregnant. Neither of you need to be making that announcement 6 months from now!" Of course it wouldn't surprise us if we did get that notification!

I'm also proud to tell you that my expectant daughter is now engaged as well. Scott was so cute when he proposed (and if I can find the right file I will attach it here so you can see it). It was nothing spectacular, nothing over the top, but he was sincere and nervous and so excited when she said yes!

On the reverse side of all of this happiness, I need to express my grief and also my ability to rejoice at the loss of two of my former students. Yes I did say my ability to rejoice--as the fact that I know that they are both in the home of their eternal Father allows them to once again be whole with no limitations for them. They have no limitations physically, mentally, emotionally and they are now our own special guardian angels watching out over those of us that were family, caregivers, teachers, medical professionals, friends, and many that only had brief contact with them.

July marked the end of life for one of my students, Ralphael or known to us as Ralphy.

This weekend marked the end of life here on earth and the beginning in heaven for another, Earnest or better known as Nookie. Nookie & his Mom, LaDonna

These two young men were in my life for many years. I have known and taught Ralphy for 9 years and Earnest for 12 years. I was not only their teacher; but also became a part of the family in some respects. The two of them definitely were a part of our family. Both girls and Dave knew them and had visited them both in the class. In addition, the girls had been out to Ralphy's house when I was his homebound teacher. In addition, I also taught 2 of Ralphy's sisters and now have his 3rd sister in the class this year.

So these students become a part of me, like all my students do. Unlike most teachers that just have a student a year and then they are off to another teacher, my students are with me from anywhere from 1-10 years before they graduate. And I often try to keep up with them and their families after graduation as well.

Update Part 3--Yes I've Been Sewing, Too!

2009-07-11T16:46:00.016-05:00

As if I haven't had anything else to do, I have been doing a bit of sewing as well. My main project was to make a Cooper the dog costume for my teacher assistant's Vacation Bible School this year. Now you may be thinking of a costume similar to the ones that people make for halloween. NOPE this a full fledged dog costume complete with foam head!

This is what it is supposed to look like:

Now then, I will say it looks almost exactly like this. Although this pattern company is NUTS if they think that this pattern will fit (as cut and sewn according to directions) a man 6"2" and up to 225 lbs. NO WAY!!! It fits the person that will be wearing it perfectly and he is only 5'9"--my daughter's beau (standing at 6') was barely able to move in it! And the sleeves and legs were to short on him. But anyway, here are the pics of what my finished product looks like.

By the way, does anyone recognize the quilt that is behind Cooper's head? That is the beautiful batik quilt (y'all remember the "Ugly Quilt") I won! At the moment I have it over the windows in my temporary sewing room to try to keep some of the heat out of the room. The room is on the southwest side of the house and in South Mississippi that means that it is the hottest side of the house in the afternoons and evenings! With the extra insulation (otherwise known as batting) in it, I have been much cooler while sewing!

OK for the other things that I've been working on. Right before school got out one of the waitresses at our favorite Sunday breakfast spot (Denny's in Ocean Springs) asked me if I could make a skirt and blouse for her daughter for a performance she had coming up. I made a very classy looking black pencil skirt and a classic white blouse for her. I just wish I had the picture of her in it. She kept telling me that some of the others were going to look like trash compared to her because she was "gonna look gooooood." Now don't even ask me how you would put in the attitude that she had when it was said. But you can almost imagine her saying it with one of those snap your finger as it is waved across and then out to the right of you. Those of you that have teenagers or are younger than I am will know exactly what I'm talking about.

While we were in the store looking for fabric for the skirt and blouse she started looking at the pattern books. This is the pattern she chose.

She chose the view C dress for me to make for her. I knew when I started it that it would not fit her the way she was used to wearing things (you know, so tight that there is no ease in anything!) And of course I had to take several inches out of the bust area (because she doesn't want any extra room under the top band of the top). The "bow" that is on this dress is hideous. I thought that when I saw the pattern, but when she put it on it was even worse! She asked if she had to have it on there. Of course I told her -- "its your dress, so you can have it however you want it!" I still have to take several inches in length out of it (here again, youth--wants to show as much skin as possible). But I can show you what it currently looks like! It really is a cute dress. I even thought about making the view A top as a maternity top for my daughter (there really is THAT much extra fabric in the bottom of it).

I've also done a little bit of other sewing. That sewing would be for my granddaughter! My daughter, son and their Dad were going to go visit princess Kahli, so I figured I would just HAVE to make a few things to go in the box that I was filling with other things I knew she'd be needing. I made 4 onesies, bib/burp sets and 1 little sundress for her. I was going to use the Reversable A-Line that (I believe is CarlaC's) from You Can Make This. However, without having any measurements for Kahli and not having a clue as to what her actual size is, its hard to use that pattern--at least if you're trying to whip it up in a few hours before throwing it in a box to send. I did find this pattern--which is also an A-line. I wasn't going to spend the time doing all the appliques on that pattern for this particular dress, so I improvised.

This is the pattern I used and then machine embroidered the 3 Fishes design from Embroodles--Embroidery Doodles.

And this is what the finished product looked like. From what I understand, her Momma loves it. I guess that means I'll have to get my butt in gear and make a few more of them for her.

Of course, I guess you know that that wouldn't be the only thing that I would be making and sending to Gramma's Princess that I would be showing you. Here are the burps that I made to go along with the bibs. The bibs have the fabric on the bottom as the back of the bib. They have the same design embroidered on the front as they do on the front of the bibs. For extra absorbancy, there is a second layer of flannel in the middle of the pink flannel and "fashion" fabric. Enjoy! LOL

This last one shows the design on the pink flannel of the bib instead of on the burp. The back fabric of the bib and the "hem" of the burp are a blue background Winnie the Pooh and friends fabric.

These are the four onesies I made for Kahli.

The fudgecicles and creamcicles look almost good enough to eat--don't you think? The only problem I have with the onesies being for Kahli is that I'm afraid that they will no longer fit. She's getting so big so fast.

But, Hey! If they don't fit her, they can be saved for Kahli's up coming cousin! No I don't mean my new grandson due Oct. 5, I mean Kahli's Grammie Kathy is expecting their second grandbaby (a girl) on Oct. 2 from her son~ So I guess I'll be sewing for Allison and Kahli in North Carolina and Austin here! Its kind of funny that both Grammie Kathy and Gramma Shelly are both expecting their second grandchildren the same week!

Update Part 2--The Grandbabies!

2009-07-10T16:25:00.006-05:00

Let's see now, to the second part of the update, let me me switch to talk of the grandbabies. Well technically I guess you could say I still only have one granddaughter with a grandson on the way. But in my book, that is grandbabies!

My beautiful granddaughter is now 2 1/2 months old. Can you believe it? She's already 2 1/2 months old? WOW!!! And she has been an absolute pistol to her Mommy and Daddy! They have gone through 3 different types of formula and countless days and nights of keeping them awake and bound to tending her. There have even been days that Mommy has said that she'd let her come back with Aunt Gigi, Uncle Timmy, and Paw Paw when they leave from visiting just so that they can get some much needed rest. But enough of that, I'm sure what you're waiting for is PICTURES! Am I right?

And No, I haven't been able to find a way to go see her yet. Betweeen moving in, having a house guest for 2 weeks, getting ready for my daughter and friend to move in, I have not had a chance to leave the coast. I do get occassional updates on how she's doing when I can catch her Mommy or Grammie Kathy online. Good Lord willing and the creek don't rise, I'll be able to see her at Thanksgiving.

Now for word on my upcoming Grandson.

My daughter is now 27 weeks pregnant and we've been able to get some really good ultrasound pics of him. I thought the normal ultrasound pics were good. But when I saw the 4D ultrasound pics I just couldn't believe it! From what I understand these 4D pics are pretty much what the little one will look like at birth! They sure didn't have that kind of stuff when I was pregnant with her! She is finally able to keep most everything down--although she does have quite a bit of nausciousness still. But she can definitely tell when Austin is hungry or when he's had enough!

He gives her extra kicks and jabs at those times! I just sit and smile when she complains about "I have to pee AGAIN!" or "He's kicking my bladder." or other similar remarks. Then she just looks across at me and says, "I know, this is just pay back for all I did to you, right?" and I just smile!

She has been staying at her Dad's house but will be returning to live with hubby and I upon her return from visiting Kahli. She and her boyfriend (who is highly considering marrying and adopting Austin--since the biological sperm donor has made himself VERY SCARCE since he found out she was pregnant) will be moving into the house around the 20th. He is a really good kid and one that I have known for a while. He is waiting to marry her due to the fact that we'll lose the insurance on her that covers her pregnancy if he marries her earlier than delivery. But he has vowed to stay with her through thick and thin. So he can't be all bad, right?

OK OK so you want to see the pictures from the 4D and want me to stop talking. OK I will show you! Geesh, impatience! These first four were taken at the first 4D ultrasound try. Because his hands and the placenta were seemingly always inthe way, the technician asked us to come back in a week to get the remaining ones. Either way, I think that the ability to get that kind of detail is unreal when it is seeming still such a long time until we get to hold him.

These last pictures are the latest that were taken, and the end of the 4D pictures. At least in this session he was more cooperative. Although his umbilical cord wasn't. But look at those cute little smiles. Apparently the technician was tickling this time instead of just trying to jab and wake him up! Grampa got to go in for this session. I had been to the other ultrasounds, I thought he'd like to get a chance to see what his grandson was going to look like!

The Beginning of an Update!

2009-07-09T05:23:00.002-05:00

Hello from the world of the Shell's Specialty! It seems like its been forever since I was last in the blogosphere as a regular and its high time I get back into the swing of things. Don't get me wrong, its not like I've been sitting around doing nothing--although this is the time when I should be doing exactly that! I guess its time for a recap on the goings on since we last caught up. Put on your reading glasses, get comfy and join me as I make a tour through the last month and a half of goings on!

I believe the last that I checked in was around the beginning of May. Since then the biggest thing in our lives is our moving from one house to another. I've moved around all my life--didn't have a choice as Dad was career Air Force. But I think I hate the moves that are within a town more than any other! When you move across country, everything is packed in a specific way and labeled clearly as to which room it goes in and there is a lot of organization to it. When you move across town (and in our case only 1 mile) it doesn't always turn out that way.

We started out packing in a very organized fashion. Every box was labeled with the kinds of things in the box and what room it came from or would go into in the new house. But in that 2 week period things went from "highly organized" to "let's just throw it in a box and get it out of here!" We had told our landlord we'd be out no later than Memorial Day weekend. Well we were, but OH what a mistake and I CERTAINLY wish we had not done it that way. But no crying over spilt milk now! We have boxes that we KNOW we packed and labeled--we KNOW they were moved from one house to the other; but we certainly do NOT know where they are now. It may be forever before we find exactly what we're looking for. The "main part" of our everyday lives is unpacked and mostly put into the final placements.

Noticed I said MOSTLY! Everytime I think we've just about got something figured out and know exactly where we want something---we change our mind! It was decided even before we moved that my sewing room would be in bedroom 1 and the grandbaby's room would be in bedroom 2 next to the master bedroom so that I could hear baby when DD was away at college. So everything that was to be in the sewing room went into bedroom 1. The computer desk and sewing tables were set up. My storage cabinets were mounted to the wall (we didn't want to chance baby climber trying to climb shelves and then have it topple over). I had everything "JUST where I wanted it!" Or thought I did! NOW we're moving the sewing room next to my room and baby room as the first bedroom--so that his momma can move in and stay with her son while she's still home and not off at college.

Of course the fact that we have boxes stacked on stacks in stacks, etc. in the garage that I can't seem to get to, to unpack isn't helping anything. The standard answer since June 1 for the question, "Have you seen...?" or "Do you know where ... is?" is simply "IN A BOX!" Who knows when we'll finally get to all the boxes. We have done a lot better than I thought we would by this point in time. But then, that is because we had originally said, "we're not painting anything for a year." Y'all know me well enough by now, I CAN'T do normal, or neutrals! It was killing me to see this beige, flat wall color on EVERY room of the house! I know that is what most people think is pretty, elogant, simple, stylish, etc. But to me it is BORING and MIND CRAZING!!!

Fortunately, it was driving DH just as crazy! We started with the living room. And I thought he'd lost his mind when he brought the paint sample home of what he wanted. Whew! It wasn't really what he wanted, but close. NO--No sneak peaks on that room until I finish making the drapes. Then I'll take pictures to show you the whole room!

This is the BEFORE picture of the Dining Room! Ok so we were using it as someplace to put things that wasn't on carpeting while we steam cleaned the carpets.

The second room was the dining room. I just knew we were going to go with a gold on the walls with navy blue drapes or deep red drapes. Nope that didn't happen either! What we went with is SOOOO much prettier! The picture I have here just doesn't even begin to show how pretty the color really is in the room. Obviously we don't have pictures on the wall yet--oh wait, those won't be going in here anyway! There are special plans for these walls. Here again, no hints as I want that to be a surprise for EVERYONE!

You know this is turning out harder to write than I thought! After all, there is SOOOO much to tell and show and I just can't seem to get things straight as to what to tell and show and where to stop. Maybe I should at least break this up a bit for ease on anyone trying to read it all.

That being said, I will end here and start again on another chapter. Of course, I do want to show you one of my most favorite areas of the house.

More Good News

2009-05-08T10:38:00.002-05:00

I have more good news to share--and another reason that I've been MIA.

SUNHERALD TV: Bystander rescues man being swept downstream
SUN HERALD

Emergency personnel including the Gulfport Fire Department and American Medical Response responded Sunday to a near-drowning at Dedeaux Park on the Biloxi River in Gulfport, a spot that has been the site of several drownings and near drownings in recent years.

The victim, an unidentified adult male, was able to walk with assistance to the ambulance and was taken to an area hospital.

Bystander Tim Gibbs said he heard the man calling for help and ran to the water, where he saw the man being carried downstream by the current.

He said he swam to the man and pulled him to the bank of the river where others assisted.
Thanks to the SunHerald.com for publishing this article online so that I could share it with my friends. Click on the link above to see the story and the video that they took to go along with it.

That of course is only PART of the story. The rest of the story is that the man called for help the first time and he went into the water. By the time the man called for help a second time, he was already halfway to him. The man's son was on the shore yelling for his father. Tim came up behind hm and the man tried to push him under to stay on top of the water. He managed to get the man calm enough to grab a hold of him and pull him to shore. When he arrived on shore the man's legs were blue from the knees down from hypothermia. Tim ran to the road and saw a sherriff deputy that was doing security rounds in the area. He flagged the sherriff deputy down and told him about the man that he pulled to shore and told him that he needed medical attention. The man was able to walk to the shore; but he required assistance on both sides to walk. His toes were still blue when he went to the hospital. (OK so this is still a condensed version of what happened, but I'll wait for the TV segment and other news report to link to here when they come out to tell the whole story if you're interested in the least.)

Since then, he has had this article in the paper written, he has been given an award from the city of Gulfport, and he was filmed for a South Mississippi Heroes segment that will air on our local news next Tuesday night. He also has done one more interview with the paper as a follow-up to this one.

Throughout all of this, my son keeps telling us NOT to tell anyone because it wasn't a big deal. He just swam out to get him because no one else was there to do so. It wasn't a big deal to him. He is so over the attention that has come of it. All the while, I will tell you that I am VERY proud of this 17-yr-old at what he has accomplished.

What a Weekend!!!!

2009-04-27T08:39:00.014-05:00

My first grandbaby, Kahli Grace, was born on April 23. That just happens to be my oldest daughter's birthday as well. As soon as I get pictures, I'll be sending them to you via the blog! We celebrated Kahli's Aunt Gigi's 21st birthday as well as her birth that night.

Saturday was my oldest son's wedding. So while Adam (my son) and Beth were celebrating the birth of Kahli, we were busy getting ready for Zach's wedding. We had the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner on Friday night.

My son, Zach, is in the yellow and blue striped shirt. That is his fiance's dad, Sherman, and mom, Michelle, stepping in for Amanda. The lady in pink in the back ground is DH's Mom, Kathy. DD, Athena, is in the golden yellow shirt.

Here are a couple of wedding pictures that we took (we didn't take many as the batteries were dying and we forgot to pick up any others).

Amanda and her dad, Sherman

Zach & Amanda Roberts

As you can see, after most of the guests arrived, the rest of us finally started to have real fun. The groom is in the grey vest. One of his best friends is in the blue vest. Athena is in the green dress, while Gigi is in the blue top with black pants. The older heavy set woman in tan is me. Of course, I'm sure you recognize the bride, Amanda.

Both girls (sisters) wanted in on the brother/sister dance!

Mom and Dad with Zach

MIA??? POW??? JUST BUSY???

2009-03-27T11:25:00.004-05:00

Alright folks, I know that you feel like I've been held prisoner by the school and can't get back to you--well that's not totally untrue I guess. Or maybe I've been missing in action because I just don't want to blog anymore--totally NOT!!! Just busy? Boy what an understatement! I have had paperwork at the school that is OMG drowning all of us at the school. Thanks to our state department of education things have changed once again and we have a different set of papers and new things that we have to do for the end of the year paperwork! UGH!!! I wish they'd just find something and stick to it for a few years instead of changing it every year!

In addition, I've been dealing with my DIL that is a 10 hour drive away falling and going into labor 7 weeks early! She has not delivered yet--but it is still risky if she does--she's still 4 1/2 weeks early. Then my DD that is pregnant got in a wreck last night that caused her to spin the car twice on a bridge, hitting the guard rail twice! So it has been very stressful to say the least around here!

I wanted to let you know that there is a give away and a new site opening April 1--You Can Quilt This. Hop over to the YCMT blog and find out all about it and the give away. You can click on the button on the right to get there.

I also wanted to let you know about my new store--currently empty as all my pictures and all are on the computer at home. It is cheaper than Etsy and eBay. And if you sign up now, you can be a verified member for a lifetime fee of $7 a month instead of risking it increasing. I know Barb of Bewjeweled Quilts is already a member and has a store front there as well as Codi from Death by Denim have store fronts there. If you're interested, please let them know that Barb, Codi and I sent you there!

Well I guess without my pictures and without me doing much at home at the moment craftwise, I suppose I should stop here--but I did want Jen know that my swap blocks were mailed off and should be reaching you today or tomorrow at the latest. Ann you should be getting your package in the next week--DH mailed it and said that he was told it will be there in about 5 days. So be watching the mail!

Sneak Peek

2009-03-14T18:27:00.003-05:00

I want to give a sneak peek of what I've been working on . I've got a friend that reads my blog--so I can't exactly show you all of what I've done, but I can give a little peek. I've been working on a purse for her. So I will only show you the back of it. The front is personalized--so I can't very well show that! I certainly hope she loves it as much as I love the fabric in this. Of course I am known to be a bit more wild in color choices than most; but I am hoping she'll enjoy it. So here's my sneak peek.

It's not much of a peek, I'll agree, but you'll have to be satisfied with that until she receives it.

I've also hemmed three pair of pants--well actually hemmed 2 and cut off one pair for a pair of shorts for another friend. I guess the most I've done all day is gone to Wal-mart and searched through the remnants again! Seems that is one of my favorite things to do here lately.

While there I found some things for my DD for her birthday. Funny that no matter how old they get to be, the one thing we try to do is remember thier birthdays! Although her friends thought they were finally going to convince her to go out drinking with them--she fooled them! Since she's pregnant her 21st birthday will be alcohol free!

Gotta be short winded today, have LOTS to do between today and tomorrow. If I don't get it done, that's that much more that I will have to do later and there isn't much later to go when we're talking deadlines for work related things!

Time for a little catch up and a Few Pictures!

2009-03-12T16:20:00.007-05:00

I see it is time I got off my oversized rear end and get to posting again. I have some catching up to do but first, I have to show you Mail Call today!!! I'm so excited!!!! I just can't believe that all of this came from the wonderful Ann, my swap partner in Darci's swap. I know at this point that Ann is thinking I've forgotten her, but I really haven't! You will see my dearest Ann. Ok, I have to get some pictures of ALL the lovelies that I've received. I'm just so excited to break into each and every little thing! But I'll show the pictures first!

A book about Australia, a key chain from there, CANDY--better yet CHOCOLATE!! and Cadbury chocolate too!-a pin cushion that is just the right size for ALL the pins I use!-buttons, embroidery thread, and OMG beautiful fabric!!! not to mention the oh sew sweet card from Ann.

Is this not the most beautiful batch of stuff from a beautiful lady? I can't tell you how much I LOVE this fabric pallette! I think my new granddaughter is going to like purple!! Especially since it is her daddy's favorite color! LOL I'll be sure to show you what all I make with it!

OK catch up: you remember when I put the ruffle on the jeans? I did two more pair of pants for Holly, one of the most precious children around--although I consider most children that way, but she is just too cute on top of being precious.

These are the other two I lengthened for her.

And this is the beautiful Holly in her newly made old jeans!

Now let's see, is there anything else artsy/crafty that I've been working on? Well, yes, but of course I don't have pictures of them! LOL I do have pictures of a solar system mobile we've been working on. The pictures are kind of hard to really see the mobile well; but that doesn't usually stop me from showing pictures! LOL

I'll try to remember to get pictures of the other things we've been working on as well. Won't promise I'll remember though!

But now that I have had my evening of Show-N-Tell, I'm heading to bed.

Tackle it Tuesday & Finish it Friday on Saturday!

2009-03-08T08:27:00.014-05:00

I know many of you have seen this icon over at Courtney's place. I NEVER seem to be able to get things tackled on Tuesdays. I decided that no matter what DH was planning on; that this was my Tackle it Tuesday/I mean Saturday. So I tackled LAUNDRY!!!! What is it with laundry that feels like it is never done? I mean other than the fact that if you get all the laundry washed, dried, folded, hung, put in their rightful places that you still have clothes on that will need to be washed. How can 2 people end up with 10+ loads of laundry in a week? Ok so its been two weeks-but we've been done 3 loads during the week as well. I guess it doesn't help that we both have clothes that we wear to work, come home change into something to bum around the house in, plus towels and sheets and things. But OMG I feel like a laundry monster has come and is growing to the point it is taking over the house! And I don't mind washing and drying it and I really don't mind folding it. But for some reason I just hate having to put it away-especially with all the clothes I have to find hangars for. Now why is it that you know you took something off a hangar, but when you go to put it back ON a hangar after it's washed all the hangars have disappeared? Kind of like socks--why is it you put 2 socks in the laundry but only have 1 when you go to fold and put away? OK OK enough about laundry--I got 5 loads done yesterday, that only leaves um, 7 or 8 loads for today! UGHHHHHHHHH

Remember this little dude from Friday? Well, Friday was NOT the day I got anything accomplished! Unless you call going to a funeral and then going to our school's alumni ball getting things accomplished. Of course I had a blast at the ball, getting to see so many of my former students; and since this is my 23rd year teaching there MANY of the attendees were former students! I just love seeing them--and they love the attention from all their former teachers--whether they can remember us or not.
I was so tired when I got home that I just crashed--not as in my car, but as in walked in, changed clothes, went to bed and was OUT!

So I chose Saturday to work on some of those almost forgotten UFOs lying around the sewing room. I had put all of this away into a bin, put the bin away and promptly forgot about it! Out of site, out of mind. I thought that just maybe you'd like to see some of what I finished up yesterday--and still have 12 more to go to have to the completely finished point. These were all in various stages of completion when I pulled them out of the bin--and no 2 are alike.

All of the designs on these bib and burp sets come from Embroodles. Kim and I worked on these designs together last summer to add to her embroidery line. Some were my idea and some were hers. But either way, if you'd like to purchase any of these designs, go see Kim at Embroodles.

Don't you just love my model? He doesn't cry or wiggle when I'm trying to get pictures! LOL

All of the bibs have the back of the bib as the same fabric as the "trim" on the burp cloth. Well, all except the one below.

This is front and back of this one. I didn't have enough of the fabric to use as the entire back, so I stripped it instead. I think it turned out pretty cool--if I do say so myself.

Thought I'd show you the front and back of one more that does have the matching fabric as the back instead of just seeing the one that is stripped. Just so you can see what I'm up to! LOL

Catching Up-Finish it Friday!

2009-03-06T07:15:00.005-06:00

Most anyone that is a lurker on my blog knows that I generally keep up with not only my blog several days a week (if not 7 days a week) and knows that if you are on the list of those I follow or subscribe to, I comment on most all of your posts. You have found me absent in not only MY postings but even more so on the commenting of YOUR posts here lately. Seems there haven't been enough hours in the days here lately. But I am giving a good effort to go back and comment on some--several--of the posts I've read through my google reader but have not previously commented on. There are ONLY 154 posts have to go back through, but I'm trying diligently to get through them all. So IF I get through all of them I will call that my FINISH it FRIDAY task of the day!

Are you interested in trying to finish up some of those unfinished objects that you have lying around? If so, go to Sister to Sister and hook up with Mr. Linky. You can then go around and see all the others that are participating in Finish it Friday!

Don't you just love this little award? Well it is NOT one that I'm giving away! You have to Grab it for yourself in the event that you deserve it. Only YOU can decide if you qualify for it or not. Only you can put it on your blog because YOU CAN'T REMEMBER SQUAT!! Around my house I am the one that suffers from CRS. I can't remember where I put the lists and notes to remind me to do something. I can't always remember to write the reminder to myself. I can't remember what the reminder is supposed to be for! I can't remember where I put my glasses. I can't remember what the name of things are--let alone my own kids--you know the drill, you go through the list of all the kids and animals names just to end up saying "YOU, the one in the green shirt, whatever your name is. . ." So I definitely can't remember sh*t! That's why I grabbed it off Barb's blog this morning! Dory is just perfect for me (oh, and did I forget to mention? She's a DISNEY character? LOL).

Speaking of Barb, See these beautiful little bags she has made? Well these are part of a Round Robin Give Away! Never heard of a Round Robin give away before? Doesn't surprise me, she just made it up. But what an awesome idea it is. Here is how it works. IF you are a follower of Barb's blog AND leave a comment on her site you will be entered into the give away. Whichever person wins will be sent all four bags + a gift from Barb. That person will then choose ONE of the four bags to keep. The remaining three bags will then be sent to someone who is a follower of his/her blog who leaves a comment on the blog saying something about wanting to enter the round robin give away and will continue it, with a gift from you for them. That person keeps one bag and sends the remaining two bags and a gift on to a follower who has left a comment. That person then keeps the last bag and the gift from the person. So all in all, there will be 4 winners in this Round Robin event. Each of the winners must be followers of the person's blog that they received it from and must comment on it. When they receive their bag + gift, they need to post a picture of the bag and gift on their blog and link it back or tell who's blog they received it from. That way even the fourth winner will be able to get readers from each blog that the previous person followed. I don't know that I explained all of that correctly. Barb can explain it better I'm sure since it is her idea! LOL If you want to participate, go to HER blog initially and be a follower and leave a comment. If you win, I'm sure we'll all come to your blog to be a follower and enter (again) with you and so on.

OK that gets me caught up with Barb's blog, on to the next person in the lineup! I may have to revise this post many times today as I find new giveaways and prizes and things to do for you to participate in as well. So even if you've already read this--check back later to see what else I've seen to share with you.

Happy Birthday to Me!

2009-03-05T21:45:00.002-06:00

Awe, the day that I was hatched--I mean born! 48 years ago today I was born in a little city outside of an Air Force Base in Florida while Daddy was stationed in Korea and was then transferred to Korea for an additional 5 months before seeing me. Mom isn't around to share my birthday, but Daddy is and I'm SOOOOO grateful for that! And now, 48 years later, I'm gearing up to be a gramma. Even Grampa Dave is starting to get excited and wanting to buy things and send to one and buy things to put up for the second one due in October!

I guess I can understand now how my grandparents (they were in Ohio and Indiana) felt being half the country away from Mom when she was pregnant with me. I'm here in MS while my son and wife are in NC.

But I will be here through all of my daughter's pregnancy. She is getting excited about being pregnant but has decided she really doesn't LIKE being pregnant! She doesn't like the morning sickness, the constipation problems, the hemroids that follow, the frequent urination, the feeling full fast (and she's only 9 1/2 weeks pregnant! think what she'll be like at 9 months! LOL). Gee, I shouldn't snicker at all these things. But it is kind of fun knowing that here she is complaining about all these things when she used to think how easy pregnant people had it! ROFLMAO

Sorry no pic(s) today, but we didn't take any. So you'll just have to make due with a SHORT post today!

Mail Call Pics!

2009-03-04T18:22:00.007-06:00

OK so I'm not quite as tired as I was last night! Lordy the mistakes I made in the post last night! But, I'm here today with pics from the mail!

I don't know why I thought I was going to be able to claim the "ugly" quilt! My CATS have claimed it with full avengance! They have FOUGHT over who gets to lay on it and claim ownership of it! And here I thought that I won the quilt! LOL

Oreo guarding "HIS" quilt.

Oreo has pulled himself deep into "his" quilt.

Savannah claims new ownership for this quilt as "HERS".

Mater just pretends he isn't interested--just so he can try to get into the drawers and cabinets instead!

Here are the wonderful fat quarters from a swap and my lagniappe fabric from Barb! Aren't these fabrics just the most wonderful? I just have to figure out now what I'm going to do with them. I'm hoping the ladies I sent FQs to enjoy their fabric as much as I'm liking mine! It is so wonderful to be able to see the fabrics that others purchase and share.

The green fabric in the middle is from Barb that she sent as lagniappe with the "ugly" quilt. I'm going to have to find something special to make with that! I haven't exactly figured out what yet, but trust me, when I do--you'll be some of the first to know!

It's Late, but GOTTA Tell Ya!

2009-03-03T22:09:00.002-06:00

Woo Hoo! Guess what came in the mail????? I got my UGLY QUILT!!! Lordy, I'm so tired, I can barely see the screen enough to see if I"m typing this right or not. If not, y'all will for give me, huh?

I'm so excited about my ugly quilt. Even dear hubby said she just didn't know what ugly was if THAT is waht she called ugly! She also sent the prettiest green fabric--I'll have to hide it from my son! Don't what I'm going to make with it yet, but I assure you, it will be something for ME! I can call it my ealry bday gift to myself--not that it will be done by then! But you get the idea.

Also got in a couple of more of my fat quarters in the fat qauarter swap! I'll get pics of all of them and get them on here soon. Don't want you to think I'm not appreciative or aren't receiving them. Hopefully y'all will get yours int he next day or so from me.

Ann--I haven't forgotten you--know you've sent my swap stuff to me--I just haven't made it to get it together--theis crud is getting the best of me. It iwll be in the mail by Friday I hoep at the latest.

If you havne't received an invite to be a Sassy Mama--consider this your invitation! Go to www.sassymamas.com and join for free if you're a Sassy Mama! Be sure to invite me as a friend when you do--if I havne't arleady invited you!

I've got to go to bed now y'all. I'll be bakc with you tomorrow.

Taking What You Know the Best!

2009-03-01T08:18:00.011-06:00

OMG, I always thought the best friends in the world were only found in face-to-face encounters--but I am here to tell you this morning that I truly have some of the VERY finest, best friends via the blogosphere! If I could meet you in person, and I truly would love to do that one day, I would give each of you a big hug. How can I ever thank you for your encouragement and support. Of course my Mom's way would have been to invite you over for a cup of coffee and pull a piping hot coffee cake out of the oven. That of course would be just a tad difficult to do over the internet--however, will this do? I make a mean cup of coffee--so I've been told--and I'll be more than happy to make you a cup; but excuse me if I drink iced tea or something else--coffee and I have never gotten along real great.

After gleaning all the wonderful encouragement from y'all and my good friend in Ontario, I went back to the "basics". I went back to doing what I KNOW I can do and do well. I had been given three pair of pants to "do something with--they still fit in the waist, but they are just too short on her" and some pants that need to be hemmed. That is something I have been doing for so long, I can almost do it in my sleep. Of course since the 3 pair of pants are size 18 mos I figured I'd start with them. You would think that I would have finished all 3 pair. However, once I got started and interrupted and started and interrupted (you all know the drill) this is what actually was accomplished.

These jeans turned into

and then I added a finishing touch to look like this.Well that was all fine and well, but this young lady of 5 years is always dressed so beautifully that I just felt that she needed a matching or coordinating top to go with it. (And yes, you did read that right, these are size 18 mos. jeans for a 5 year old. I guess if you're a regular follower, you know that these are for one of my special kids at school. The difference is, her mom works at the school with us and that's why I got them to work on in the first place.) So I saw this pattern I bought for my coming granddaughter and thought it'd be just too cute on her.

And here is the final product front and back. If I can ever catch her in it at schoool, I'll take a pic of her in it and ask her mom for permission to post it here so you can see how beautiful she is.

Blue Funk Hits Hard(er)

2009-02-27T22:38:00.003-06:00

Blue Funk - What exactly is a blue funk? Well what we have always termed a blue funk around our house is NOT what the dictionary considers it! The definition I found was this:

blue funk
Noun
Slang a state of great terror

However the Thesaurus on the same page says:

Noun
1. blue funk - a state of nervous depression; "he was in a funk"
funk
depression - a mental state characterized by a pessimistic sense of inadequacy and a despondent lack of activity

Now that is more how we define a blue funk in this house! And ever since, well, I'm not even sure exactly when it started again, but since sometime, I've begun to slide into a blue funk. And for some reason, I just can't seem to get out of it.

It has caused me to stop having too much to say here in blogland--hence the lack of posts.

It has caused me to stop everything on my quilts

--waiting until the last possible minute to get my fat quarters ready and mailed to

my swap partners. I'm hoping it didn't cause me to choose aweful fabrics just because

of my mood--if it did, I'm so sorry to those of you that are receiving them.

--not moving on to the next step of the YCMT quilt. So I'm now at least 1-2 (if not more)

steps behind where I should be.

--stopped working on my blocks for the Rainbow Sampler Quilt Swap--only 3 of 18 blocks

finished.

--can't get the inspiration to put fabrics together for the kalaidescope ruler quilt I want to

start.

--stopped all forward motion on the calendar quilt--and having to "hunt" for fabric to put

into it for each day and find meaning for it.

It has caused me to doubt my own work more so than any time I can remember lately. And I know that my abilities haven't changed--just my perspective of them. I know that the two wonderful ladies that I've corresponded with meant to give me help and encouragement--but the perception of black and white print often does not relate the intention; but more of how the reader perceives it. I know that ALL quilters start out as beginners initially. I know that many quilters don't sew anything (and never have) but quilts. I know that since I have NEVER actually pieced, layered, quilted, bound, etc. a quilt that I am not a TRUE quilter. However the term "you're just a wannabe quilter" just hit a nerve (and yes I know that was not its intent, so don't feel badly about saying it). I have rarely been considered a wannabe--as it is a short time between a "wannabe" and an "is" for me. I was told that I shouldn't participate in any swaps (especially with those that are experienced quilters as I'll be at the mercy of the sharks instead of getting encouragement from them). Well now that I'm involved in one, working on 2 different blocks that I've obviously never attempted before in my life--What do I do? If I don't continue now and make the blocks there will be two groups in the swap that won't have a color finished for the quilt. If I'm doing them incorrectly I will have screwed up everyone's in those two groups quilts. I've been told over and over (by people that know me face-to-face and have either seen my work or have worn my work) that I can sew circles around most anyone put "up against me" and have things that are more professional looking than others as well. But yet I feel now like I have done exactly what I was told not to do. I've set myself up for failure

--by not having a quilting class under my list of "I've done that".

--by never having made a quilt before entering a swap.

--by allowing my newness to be seen by others here, on flickr, and then in person by

those receiving the squares.

--by allowing my naiveness of "if I can sew, I can quilt" come out so loud and clear.

--by even caring what others think of my work and letting it bother me so.

It has stopped my creativeness

--in the baby bib/burp sets I was making for 2 nieces and now 2 grandchildren.

--in the baby clothes I had planned to make.

--in the baby blankets and/or quilts I had planned to make.

--in my ability to digitize machine embroidery designs.

--to even want to see if anything has done anything at my etsy shop.

--to even want to get near a sewing machine.

--in finding art/craft projects for my classroom for my unit on space that are new or

interesting yet not so complicated that they are worth doing.

--to finish organizing and decorating my sewing room.

It has stopped my ability to think past "what can I blog about today" as I seem to be coming up blank.

It has stopped my ability to find new and interesting things to talk about--and don't want to get into a "pity party" (but seem to be) when I do sit down to blog.

It has stopped me from being able to even find a starting point to anything. I know that should be easy--"You start at the very beginning, it's the very best place to start. When you read you begin with ABC, when you sing you begin with Do, Re, Me" But I can't seem to find the "beginning" to anything.

I was given a Kreative Blogger award--and I just can't find a reason it should be posted on my blog. Don't get me wrong--I'm very thankful that it was given to me. I'm thrilled to think that another would think that I'm creative enough to deserve it. But for right now, I just cannot find the creativity in me feel that I should deserve it.

NO, I'm not fishing for compliments!

NO, I'm not looking for an ego boost!

YES, I'm trying to explain what is troubling me--a lack of ideas, a lack of motivation (and I should have TONS of it), a major lack of creativity; and I really need to find it back QUICKLY!!!

MAYBE I'll feel better about things tomorrow and I'll be able to get at least one or two things accomplished on at least part of my GOT TO DO this weeekend list! Seems my couple of weeks of a flurry of activity and accomplishment have peteered out into NOTHINGNESS! I need to get back to those weeks where I got so much accomplished in a day, let alone a weekend. I just don't know what it will take to get me back to that. Any suggestions? Any ideas of how to break through the wall of creativity block?

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2009-02-26T06:58:00.002-06:00

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Links are US! or Playing Catch-Up Again!

2009-02-26T04:54:00.008-06:00

The hurrier I go the behinder I get. Isn't that the old saying? Well in my case that is often the case. However, you haven't seen any posts from me lately not due to me being so busy, but I haven't been able to get my posts to save as drafts or to publish. So I thought I would try this early in the morning and see if I can beat the "heavy traffic" on the intenet to see if that makes a difference. Also for any of you that I follow or read on a regular basis--don't think that I'm no longer following or reading or just lurking now. I've also been having troubles leaving comments--some of the posts don't have a place to leave a comment, sometimes my comment disappears (and these aren't the ones that moderate before posting), and sometimes it just doesn't allow me to comment at all because it will "time out". But I am here and if nothing else, I'm leaving you comments telepathically! LOL

To begin with, here is the February update for the calendar quilt. Lousy pic I know. It was current through Sunday and then I already had my fabric for Mardi Gras day picked. I can't believe that another month is almost finished! BTW the blue and white behind it is for the Rainbow Sampler Quilt Swap--so no I haven't forgotten about that, just haven't gotten back to them. I promise Jen, I'll have my blocks done by deadline.

2nd: This is what mail call brought me the other day! The fat quarters are from the Sew Mama, Sew! Fat Quarter Swap. The Kaleidoscope Wedge Ruler??? Well, I got "tired" (NO Barb, I never get tired of seeing your stuff!!! I love your stuff!) Ok, I confess, I was jealous--ok are you happy, I said it, of Barb's BEAUTIFUL designs with her "fancy" ruler. So I asked her what it was called. I googled it and found one on ebay and snatched it up! So when school paperwork calms down some--or when I'm so stressed from the schoolwork that I NEED some sanity, I will be attempting some of those really NEAT designs that she's been doing as well. I would say that I was disappointed that only 2 of my 8 fat quarters have come in, but considering mine were supposed to go in the mail yesterday, um, I'm not doing any better. So if you are part of the two groups of swap mates I'm in, I'm trying to get my brain to get me to the post office! LOL

Oh and if you're looking for what to do with all those fat quarters that are going through the mail... Then Sew Mama, Sew! has some fabulous ideas as to what to do with them. Everyday (I think) all month she has been giving ideas, tuts, etc on what to do with fat quarters. So hop on over and browse--since I know that your creativity is just drying up completely--afterall, there's been NOTHING new posted as of late from anyone! NOT!!!!

Speaking of NEW stuff, have you seen the NEW ebook that Courtney at Sister to Sister has just finished? Just love it! Just waiting for it to be "released" so I can get a copy to start making loveys for my new grandbabies that are on their way.

Oh, and can anyone tell me how to convince on-the-go kids to use nappys instead of disposable diapers? I have found the most adorable nappy complete with awesome tutorial over at Kei's Creations. Kei gives you the total step-by-step lowdown on how to make these! They are just so CUTE and environmentally friendly too! I just don't know how to convince the kids that they need to use them--at least at home anyway!

And you all have to check out Melissa's new ebook! Of course I don't know if it has been released or not yet either, but she's got it up and on her site ready for you to look at anyway!

OK ladies, I know that many of you keep up with Mama Krit. She needs OUR help now! The Simply Savvy lady is need of help for ideas for her child's WESTERN birthday party. I have sent her all that I have to help her. Hop on over to her blog and give her what ideas YOU have to help her out. Themed birthday parties are so cool to kids.

3rd: For those of you still stuck in snow and ice and cold weather, let me share my camelia bushes with you. These have been blooming for over a week. And you might not be able to tell, but there are LOTS more blooms ready to open up on the two larger bushes. I really should have trimmed the two larger bushes last fall (and I usually do); but with me being in a walking boot, Dave wouldn't let me get into uneven ground or areas that might be muddy--especially while yielding an electric trimmer! Gee, what did he think I'd do? Fall and cut my own arm off or something? (Yes!)

I was really hoping to be able to tell everyone that --hey, I got all the blocks for the swap done! I got the blocks for the bushfire project done! I've started a new quilt with the new fancy, schmancy ruler! After all, I had a 4 day weekend. Unfortunately, I spent all 4 of those days in bed with 101+ temp, taking as much dayquil, thera flu, nyquil combinations as I possibly could get away with so I wouldn't feel like the walking dead--and still did. I've coughed and hacked so much my lungs and muscles around my ribs are VERY sore. So needless to say, all my thoughts of "grandeur" and my big plans for the weekend went to hell in a handbasket! Hopefully this coming weekend will be much more productive!

I know that this is MUCH shorter than my usual posts--and I'm sure most who read or scan through it will be happy about that! But sickness has a tendency to shorten things tremendously!

Valentine's Day Mardi Gras Style!

2009-02-15T20:10:00.023-06:00

I started this post a week ago--and then went MIA! You can blame exhaustion, work, lack of umph, lack of creativity, just lazy, or come up with your own excuse. At any rate, for you that actually have a hankering to read my posts---I'm BACK!!! Warning this is going to be picture heavy today as I'm going to be showing pictures from our ball last Saturday.

For most people in the world that celebrate Valentine's Day it is spent as a quiet romantic evening with their significant other, spent wishing you were with your significant other, or having either a pity party that they don't have someone or that they hate all members of the opposite sex because of their former significant other. Well, for those that are involved with the Krewe of Harlequins, Valentine's Day was done Mardi Gras Style! This year, our Mardi Gras Ball for the Krewe of Harlequins was on Saturday, February 14. For Dave and I, we combined the two with our table decorations.

This is the first year that Dave and I have not been in one of the skits or dances as part of the tableau, so we didn't have to stick with the theme of our group this year. As this WAS our Valentine's Day date, we wanted to make it a little more on the red/pink/white as opposed to other colors this year.

As is tradition, the day of our ball we begin with breakfast with two of my oldest friends. Terry-no-blog, you've already met, and Penny-no-blog, Dave and I go to breakfast--meeting before 7 in the morning so that we can be at the Coast Coliseum by 8 for practice and time to decorate. I think this is probably one of the best pictures ever taken of the 3 of us (especially at 7 in the morning!).

Dave thought that we could show y'all the more fanciful and regal side of Mardi Gras as opposed to the lecherous, rauchous, drunk, rebel rousing side of Mardi Gras. I'm sure many think of Mardi Gras as nothing but a big party in New Orleans. In actuality it is more. This is one aspect where--yes there is drinking and dancing and having a great time, but it is also a time of paying homage to the royalty of the court--the maids and dukes and their King and Queen of that year's ball. Our krewe still does much of our ball based on the traditional old style of New Orleans--with elaborate costumes, fanfare, and yes royalty. Allow me to introduce you to the regal side of Mardi Gras.

And yes the picture is not totally in focus, when you have someone as they dance around the floor for the final royal promenade things don't stay in focus long enough to allow for the flash and shutter to keep up with them (at least not with the camera we had at the ball).

Princess Pocahontas and Canadian Mounty as our Ball Captains--

Our maid representing the musical Evita and Duke representing the King of Siam

This is a husband and wife that were both in the court--but they were not "coupled" in the court. He was our duke representing Brigadoon from Scotland and she was representing Russia's Anastassia.

Our maid representing France's Can-Can and duke England's Erin

Our maid representing Japan's Madame Butterfly

For some reason I don't have pictures of the two remaining dukes. Of course, Dave and I WERE a little backstage. We were the ones putting on the capes and collars on everyone. Yes, all of those feathers sit as a collar on the shoulders. Most of them weigh between 15-25 pounds. In addition, the men have capes that are attached at the shoulders that then straps that wrap across the front to the back, wrap at the back and then tie in the front under all that costuming. And because we were busy holding up collars, head pieces and capes/trains, we weren't able to also take pictures of the process--although we really should do that one day. No one would ever believe all that it takes to get into one of these costumes--nor what it takes to make them! And yes I've done BOTH as well as worn one in another ball in a previous year many moons ago!

Now for his and her royal majesties, may I present the King and Queen of Harlequins representing the musical South Pacific--first back stage and then together with their 6 pages and the past year's reigning royalty).

So there you have it, the royalty for the 2009 year of Harlequins. May their reign be honest and true to the krewe for the year. Now Laissex les bon temps rouler! Let the Good Times Roll! And that they did. WE left at 1:30 and we were by no means the last to leave. Here is what the three buddies and then Dave and I looked like a little after midnight!

So as you can see, we all had a GREAT time and were still going strong at that point! Of course, the four of us here with our Harlequin (who looks pretty good to be 33 years old) are not big drinkers and with cokes (per 8 oz cup) and water (per 20 oz bottle) being priced at $3.75 a drink and beer $5.75 and mixed drinks at $7.75 each you can see that we stuck to the water fountains more than anything. Actually an empty purchased water bottle, water from the fountain and a box of to-go packets of Crystal lite goes quite a long way! LOL None of the 4 of us had to worry about hang overs. Now the table behind me on the other hand, well, let's just say that they went home with a lot less money in their pockets and a huge hangover the next morning I'm sure! LOL

So to those couples that I invited and they did not attend, you missed an excellent show and a really good time.

To find out more about what Mardi Gras is and isn't and what it's all about, you can go here--the website to discover all you need to know http://www.mardigrasneworleans.com/

After all that we did back stage Saturday night, I decided I needed a new "title". And since one of my blogging friends had turned herself into a hero, I decided I could too! Therefore, I went to make myself into a hero--and you can too by clicking here. But this is what I look like as a super hero--ready to tie any cape to the body, hold the and strap the largest collars on (with help from my trusty side kick of course--but he's not made his super hero yet!), it's the Royal Royalty. Now what is funny to me is that this site named me without me doing anything but picking out the wardrobe and all--not knowing anything of my last weekend! LOL

But we were tired. And then after resting and relaxing all day Sunday I came home Monday from work and got quite a surprise with THIS:

These shelves were all empty when I got home--and have been until yesterday when I finally had a chance to actually start sorting through things. Dave, I absolutely love you for the little things like this that you do for me when I'm not expecting them. Thank you!

And everything on the top shelf is scrap. And that is just what I dug off the top of my cutting table and one bin. Wait till I get into the rest of the bins, the chest of drawers and boxes of fabric so I can start organizing it. Now Melissa, see why I said I need your help? LOL

It is time to rest your weary eyes from reading through this post and for me to go scrub floors--YUCK for me! I'll check back in with y'all later. Time to get off my butt since I've commented on many of the 183 comments I've read through this morning! I've been here awhile I guess you could say! (Oh and I don't dare spend the time to go look at the 83 more posts that are NOW there!)

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

2009-02-13T15:53:00.014-06:00

Happy Valentine's Day to all my bloggy friends!

Yesterday was a Friday--so that means it was Finish It Friday! Today is Valentine's Day, so that means yesterday was also Friday the 13th~ So I guess the question becomes, does that mean that it is supposed to be a good day, bad day, or just another ol' day like any else. Are you a person who suffers from Paraskevidekatriaphobia? Don't ask me to pronounce it! And I don't think I fall under that phobia anyway! It is people afflicted with a morbid, irrational fear of Friday the 13th! Now I know that superstition says that bad things fall on the that day, but good grief! I can't believe that people would be so afraid of Friday the 13th that they would not go to work, not drive, won't operate machinery, etc. But I'm seeing where there really ARE people in the world that way. According to David Emery there may be as many as 21 million people in the US that are afflicted with paraskevidekatriaphobia! And many of these 21 million people won't go to work, drive, eat in restaurants and most wouldn't think of setting a wedding on the date.

For me, it wasn't the best of days, but it definitely was a pretty decent one. We had our classroom party, A Celebration of Love for Your Child. We invited parents and grandparents to join us in the class and we all had a party! We showed off all of the projects we had finished before the party--of which I'll show you here as well! We had a good time making all the things that I will be showing. Some of the ideas I got from Make 'n Takes and some from One Pretty Thing. Do I remember where I got what? Of course not! And some of the things just came up out of my own (and my assitant's) little pea brains! And all of this was to wrap up our unit on Valentine's so I guess you could say that I was able to have a successful Finish it Friday as well! LOL

Our little ground hog friend here is just pompoms, beads and a plastic cup. And unfortunately, he saw his shadow on Ground Hog's Day. That means 6 more weeks of winter. UGH! But he was so cute, we just had to make him!

Chinese New Year ended on February 9 with the Festival of Lanterns or Parade of Lanterns. Did you know that it was a 15 day celebration beginning on the first new moon of the year and ending on the first full moon? I didn't either. Did you know that RED is the color of the Chinese New Year Celebrations? Did you know that not only do they have the parades, fireworks and dragon dances that we all have seen at one time or another that traditionally it is a 15 day celebration of family, reuniting families, celebrating their ancestry, being with family members, etc.

It's interesting to me that the Jewish religion has a similar practice with 8 days of Hanukah. The African Americans have the same practices withe their Kwanzaa 8 day long celebrations. But the "general" American public--and yes that does include all of those (us) that don't celebrate the other three holidays listed, don't have but one day at Thanksgiving to celebrate our families and our ancestry, one day of loving and kindred spirit and love for our families at Christmas--and oh yeah, let's not forget the Mother's Day, Father's Day and Grandparent's Days where we only acknowledge one person on each of those days.

What's wrong with the rest of us? What's wrong with the rest of the civilized, commercialized, economically strained world? Why can't we see that there is a need for remembering our families, remembering where we came from--and I don't mean what country or nationality, I mean what was the family we came from. Do we remember of the stories grandma or grandpa told? Were they even around to tell them? Would you recognize your great grandparents in pictures if you saw them? Do you know what they did for a liiving? How did they make it through World War I or World War II or the Great Depression? What did they or could they have told us to help us NOT be in the economic strong holds we're in now? Did we listen or just hear those tales? OK so I've gotten off another totally different tangent--but an important one I think. Maybe you can share a something of your thoughts on this or at least tell me if I'm nuts or not to even wonder about it. (OK don't tell me I'm nuts, everyone already knows I'm nuts!)

ANYWAY, these hanging Bee Mine mobiles was one of the most fun things we did. The original idea was to print the hearts with the letters on them and the two bees and string them together. Well, that was all fine and good; but I didn't want to have to use up all that ink by doing that 6 times! So we printed the bees; but none of the letters onto the paper. We then cut out the hearts--and made enough hearts to have 2 bees, a spacer heart and then to spell out BEE MINE. We used stamps and paint to do the lettering. Then we decided the construction paper wasn't sturdy enough and we had all of this old floral wall paper sitting there waiting to be used. So we once again sat and cut out hearts (60 of them to be exact--except we miscounted and there were actually about 70 cut in all). We glued the wall paper to the construction paper and then strung them together. We added a bead and bell at the end to keep them from blowing too much and then hung them from the ceiling. They look so pretty as the different letters twirl this way and that from the air of the air conditioning unit or when the doors are open. As you can see, I don't have any LESS of a colorful classroom than I do house! One day I'll take pictures of the room and take you on a tour around there! I'll be willing to bet you've never been in a classroom quite like mine!

This was one of the most time consuming projects we--ok, DH and I did all the work on these. It was just too cool of an idea NOT to do. I can thank my assistant, Micki, for coming up with this idea. This is the international sign language sign for "I love you." We took old knit gloves, stuffed them with poly-fill stuffing, tacked down the middle two fingers and tacked around the thumb so that it was out straighter. We wrote "I love you" in fabric paint on the felt hearts and then sewed them to the glove's palm. It is therefore something that if my orally fixated students need something to chew on, they can chew on this. It can be washed and dried. And whenever they have it, they will know that someone loves them! I can't believe that as much as I HATE hand stitching, that I sat and sewed six of these at the cuffs and all that I just wrote! That in itself should tell me how much I love these kids.

And finally, I want to show you a picture of one of my students with her uncle--who is currently her legal guardian and I forget and call him her dad most of the time. I'd show you more, but this is the only parent I have permission to post a picture of. This is Lyndsey and John--at the party on Friday. I don't suppose that they were having just a little bit of fun at the party. Nah, neither of them were, I can just tell by those sad faces! NOT!!! LOL

So try to have as good a time this weekend as Lyndsey and John did at the party. And remember, you can choose your friends, but God chooses your family. So remember them when you're talking to Him and thank him for giving you a family--even if you don't think its the best one. At least you have a family and a family here in the blogosphere that thinks of you and loves you.

But one of the BEST things that happened to me yesterday--and I didn't find out about it until this morning is that I finally became a WINNER in one of the drawings, give aways, pull a name out of the hat, what ever you want to call it! I am the PROUD new owner of Barb's UGLY QUILT GIVEAWAY!!!!

Now you tell me, is this an ugly quilt?

or is it the PRETTIEST ugly quilt you've ever seen?

I think it is beautiful personally--and since I won it, I guess my opinion counts the most in this case!

It is made with Samoan batiks and I think it is fabulous!

Thank you so much, for making your beautiful (ugly) quilt! I absolutely love it. And thank you for making me be a SOMETIMES winner instead of a "NEVER" winner!

What is.....

2009-02-12T16:46:00.003-06:00

First a little something for all of those that feel they have problems having time to do their quilting, their cleaning and other things due to the time we all spend on the computer blogging!

Cleaning Poem
I asked the Lord to tell me

Why my house is such a mess.

He asked if I'd been 'computering',

And I had to answer 'yes.'

He told me to get off my fanny

And tidy up the house.

And so I started cleaning up...

The smudges off my mouse.

I wiped and shined the topside.

That really did the trick...

I was just admiring my work.

I didn't mean to 'click.
But click, I did, and oops I found

A real absorbing site.

That I got SO way into it.

I was into it all night.

Nothing's changed except my mouse

It's very, very shiny.

I guess my house will stay a mess...

While I sit here on my hiney!
Author: Anonymous

Second, Kristina over at My Simply Savvy Life asked a few questions to get folks talking and responding to her blog today (or was it yesterday?—I’m so far behind I don’t even know what today is!) She writes:
“What other tutorials would you like to see? How have you been feeling this week... and just for kicks, tell me the craziest thing that has happened to you this month.” To which I answered: You would think that having someone ask “what was the craziest thing to happen to you this month?” would be an easy question to answer. But since “crazy” seems to be the normal for my life –finding something that would be crazy is difficult for me. The things that come to mind are:
1. Being ticketed for an expired tag when I didn’t realize it was expired and for how long it WAS expired!
2. My daughter announcing she was pregnant.
3. Watching my daughter’s first ultrasound when she’s only 4 weeks pregnant! I didn’t even know they COULD do an ultrasound that early and see anything. But you really can!!! The amazing things they’ve done with technology since I gave birth to my 3 children!

As far as tutorials??? You want to show me how to machine quilt—squiggles—the proper way in a tut? How about a tut on how to choose fabrics that are pretty but aren’t expensive? Nah just kidding, I know that can’t be done. Then I got a roll with it. And just so you know how I feel, here it is. But I really would like others’ opinions as well.

But honestly, why do all the fabrics that I see folks purchasing and all the ones listed in quilting sections are $8.99 and up a yard? Why are Fat Quarters $5 and up? That’s ridiculous when I can go to Wal-mart and purchase very pretty, fashionable fabrics for $2.50 a yard and then I feel guilty because it isn’t a Michael Miller or Moda or something that others seem to have and the only thing they sew with. I feel like the pieces I show that I quilt with are inferior fabrics and am thinking of pulling out of the 2 fat quarter swaps I’ve signed up for just for the reason that I don’t think that my fabric will “rank” along side others and they’ll feel cheated. If those in the swaps are expecting the high priced and I’m assuming superior quality fabrics—not that I would swear they are as I have never used them—then what about those of us that cannot afford those fabrics, don’t have access to those fabrics except for online, and don’t use it because of the first two? Do we need to be breaking our budgets to purchase special fabrics to send?

And what do people consider “grandma” fabrics when they say, “And please don’t send grandma fabric? What people are purchasing and showing as 30’s fabric and civil war fabric??? To me that IS grandma fabric. So, maybe I’m a little new to this quilting stuff. Ok I’m a lot new to it.

But I really need some clarification here! I need HELP understanding the difference and classifications of the types of fabrics and the ways quilt bundles, layers, “cakes?” “jelly rolls?” (Aren’t those something you eat?), etc. For all I know, the fabrics I’ve chosen for the rainbow sampler quilt swap is not “superior enough” fabric and I need to rethink what the blocks are sewn with.

Attn Quilters: Everything Must Go Sale

2009-02-11T17:15:00.000-06:00

Hey y'all,
I just got this message and thought I'd pass it on to y'all as well!

EVERYTHING must go to make room for new inventory here at the Carriage HouseQuilt Shop.
February 11th through February 18th use
Promotional Code: SALE40 uponcheckout to get 40% OFF your ENTIRE order!

http://www.carriagehousequiltshop.com/index.php

You will find yardage, fat quarters, charm packs, patterns, books, kits andmore.
All fabrics are 100% high quality cotton.
Shop early for best selections as quantities are limited.
Offer valid for in stock items only (Advance Order items do not apply).
This sale will end Wednesday February 18th at midnight eastern standardtime.
To be notified about our 50%-70% OFF Sale be sure to subscribe to ourmailing list:https://www.carriagehousequiltshop.com/signup.php
I hope you enjoy your visit at the Carriage House Quilt Shop.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email me atcs@carriagehousequiltshop.com Best wishes and happy shopping,
Sangeeta Mellen
Carriage House Quilt Shop
Website: http://www.carriagehousequiltshop.com/
email: cs@carriagehousequiltshop.com
90 Waterman Street
Pawtucket, Rhode Island 02861
401-475-9400
=================================================
Forward this promotional email to a friend.
http://newsletters.fabshophop.com/members.aspx?Task=FF&SI=4731709&E=shesewsall%40aol.com&S=36&N=31317&Format=TEXT
This promotional QuiltSavings message is sponsored by The Fabric Shop Network, Inc., a trade organization for independent quilt and fabric retailers.
PO Box 820128, Vancouver, WA 98682 Sponsors of the FabShop Hop http://www.fabshophop.com/

A Day with Best Friend--the Bestest!

2009-02-10T17:29:00.010-06:00

My oldest (ok, not in age but in the number of years I've known her) and dearest BFF in the whole world has come down from her home in the northern half of the state to visit her old stomping grounds, some old friends and to attend our Mardi Gras Ball on Saturday night. Since I took the day off to be with DD (G) for her first appointment with the OB doc, I spent the majority of the day with my BFF! G and I went to pick Terry (no blog) up from her MIL's and went to Applebee's for lunch after G's appointment. They were so crowded we weren't able to tease and harrass the poor waiter like usual. Of course, we also didn't have our normal waiter either! On the way out we saw some other really good friends that we haven't seen in 5 or more years. We talked and laughed like a day had not even passed since we'd last seen them!

After we dropped G off so she could go to work, Terry-no-blog and I went to the wonderful world of Wall--otherwise known as Wal-Mart. You wouldn't think we could get into much trouble in there, but as her late husband used to say, "Oh no, I"m not going with them anywhere--those 2 are trouble when they get together!" I found a really adorable frog (and dang if I didn't remember that I had a camera with me in the form of a camera phone! I could kick myself for not remembering it until later!) Anyway, I found this really cute stuffed animal frog (she collects frogs) holding three candy hearts. I showed it to her and she said, "yeah I saw it." With our ball on Valentine's night this year and her not having her husband to be with her this year, I know it is going to be a rough one for her. So I took the frog and said--in my best froggy voice--"C'mon Terry, buy me! You know you want me." She just started giggling and turned around. "Terr-rrry, I'm only $10. I could be your date Saturday night." Again she kept giggling (which is one of her bestest ever traits--I love to hear her giggle and laugh). So I walked up behind her, tapped her on the vshoulder with the frog's leg and said, "Hey, YOU, I love you. Can't I go home with you?" To which she said, "Ok, come on. You can go to the ball with me too. That way I'll have something there so I won't be by myself." I said, "What you gonna name him?" YES we are this silly that we do things like this together! She said, "I'll name him Richard and then Richard WILL be with me at the ball." Well, as we walked around, she got him a rose to carry. I kept teasing her that she needed a special pillow for him to sit on too! She didn't get that though.

We went back in the fabric section and I just couldn't resist any longer (OH how DH will kill me!!!!) I got 1/2 yard of some of the fabrics I'm wanting to make DIL a quilt for my first grandbaby with. Now aren't these colors pretty together? I can hardly wait to get started on it--although DH keeps telling me--you can wait until the summer. But Kahli will be born in late April or early May. Now HOW can I wait until the summer to make it? I mean, seriously! I just LOVE these fabrics together! It will be so pretty and cheerful and BRIGHT!

Well while back in the fabric section, I got to talking to the lady about the quilts that several of us are doing online here together--you can make this, Make it as YOU go Along quilt; rainbow sampler quilt swap; summer mystery quilt, and our calendar quilt. She wanted to know if I knew the URL to find them. I said I did, so I gave her the address to the blogs so she can look at them and do them if she'd like to or not. But I also looked through the remnants--I can never resist looking there. And look what I found. I think the fabrics above are just too pretty together. Can't you just see a quilt made out of that? And I've always loved this princess fabric. Maybe I'll be having two granddaughters--I can do tropical for one and princesses for the other! Nah the other will end up being ducks or butterflies I have a feeling! That is still to be seen! Man oh man am I gonna be in big trouble when DH reads to catch up on my blog tonight! I'm gonna have to pay up big time to him for this one. Maybe I should go start making dinner so he won't be the one to have to cook tonight either! LOL (Which I did, cubed potatoes with sausage, rotel tomatoes, grated cheese, sliced stick of butter, & some evaporated milk--mix altogether, pour into baking dish, bake until potatoes are done! Mmmmm-Mmmmm Good!)

We still had time to kill before going to pick up Terry-no-blog's MIL from work so we went to the mall. Somehow we ended up in Dillards and for some reason any time the two of us are together in that store, we just go nutty!

We were walking through the men's department and she says,"Hey look, I found my date for the ball." I told her to go stand next to "him" and I'd get a picture. This is when I finally remembered my phone has a camera on it! DUH! So she cozies up to this manequin and this is the picture I got! And of all things, I cut off the head of the "man of her dreams"! LOL She then turns around to another manequin and starts talking to it. "I'm sorry, you're just to.... I can't go to the ball with you, I'll just have to go by myself. You see how it is and you understand, right?" and then she turns and walks away. Good thing she wasn't expecting an answer from him. I don't think he looked very understanding! LOL

We then went upstairs and started looking for the restroom. Of course to get there we had to go by the formals. We start looking at them (like we had any intention of buying??!! NOT!) I finally said, "Terry, you want to have some fun? Let's try a couple of these on. Well, she chickened out and wouldn't try any on. But she was so gracious (yeah right) and complimentary (oh yeah--that's what it was) to keep pulling things out that were SEVERAL sizes too small for me and then wanted me to try them on. One of the tops she pulled off the rack I did try on. Here's the pic I took in the dressing room--I can't believe I'm actually going to show this pic! Oh brother, I MUST have lost my mind! Obviously this is not a very good pic and I'd probably NEVER wear anything like this. But it was a cute top on the rack. There was a dress that she wanted me to try on--and of course I did try it on--that if it would have zipped up all the way, I would have considered taking a pic in it as well. Guess I should've done it same as I did this one, but I didn't. It really was pretty. But I've just gained WAY too much weight and too much flab across my back and stomach to have been able to zip it. Of course, I wasn't going to pay the $225 that they wanted for it either. But it WAS cute. We laughed and giggled our way through the store--that's for sure. We left there and made our way back to the car as she had to take her MIL to a friend's grandchild's birthday party. But we've already made plans to get together again tomorrow night. I wonder what tale I'll have to spin to y'all after that!?! Heaven only knows what will happen when the two of us are together! But I was really glad that I was able to get her to smile and make her feel better about going to the ball Saturday night.

Metaphor Monday—One Vine

2009-02-09T19:15:00.011-06:00

I thought I’d try something different today—as Blue Monday is drawing a blank in my brain today. If I come up with something for that, I’ll come back later and write about Blue Monday as well.

I’m not really very good at metaphors, but one Sunday many, many years ago, I heard a sermon on One Vine. Essentially this sermon ever since then has become partially a joke and partially a way to remember Jesus. Let me see if I can explain. It seems that I am one of the adult ADDs of the world! Now I know there are many of us—you know you start your day cleaning the living room and find something that goes in the bedroom. So you take it to the bedroom and discover the bed wasn’t made. As you make the bed, you find the seam ripper you’ve been looking for and take it to your sewing area. While there you think “I should really work on….” As you get ready to do that, you find a glass that wasn’t taken back to the kitchen. So you take the glass into the kitchen and see a pile of dirty dish rags where the kids left them after cleaning up the Kool-Aid they spilled. You take those into the laundry room and discover ….. and so on and so on and so on. So by the end of the day you feel like you’re exhausted but when you try to figure out what you’ve done that day, you can’t come up with anything that actually got accomplished!

So this is how things happen. Saturday night DH and I were cleaning the kitchen—well, doing the dishes. Afterwards, I scrubbed down all the cabinets and stove top. I opened the oven and decided I needed to spray it down to clean the inside. I closed it up and forgot about it. Sunday morning, DH asks, “Did you ever finish cleaning out the oven?” “Oh Sh… I’ll start on that now. By the way, can you please get the oven door off for me so I can reach into the back easier?” Well he comes over and tries to do the lift and pull method of taking off the oven door. This is a built in oven so that doesn’t work. So he starts taking screws out of the door. The vent from under the oven came off first. He hands it to me and it’s an immediate, “Oh Yuck” reaction. So I scrubbed it down. The next thing to come off was the handle. It wasn’t too bad, so I set it aside. Then the outside thermal glass comes to me. “Ewww that’s gross! All that grease along the bottom where it’s been in the metal casing.” So of course, that got scrubbed and set aside. Then came the metal casing--OMG, you’d never believe how gross it was—all the dust and grease and who knows what from who knows how many years it’s been there that has worked its way inside of it. So that was the next thing to be scrubbed. There were even pieces of paint that came off the interior of the casing as I scrubbed it clean. By this time I’m wondering if I’m ever going to get to “clean the oven” not thinking about the fact that that was exactly what I was doing!

At this point I have this bare oven door with nothing but the inside piece of thermal glass and metal. And the door is STILL not off! But the metal “window sill” has yuck from where the inside of the oven has been cleaned before and it the dirty water and grease and grime has seeped through. And the area under the oven??? Oh man, I didn’t know you could have dust and lint and crud INSIDE there! So I cleaned all of that out!

Now you notice I still haven’t gotten to the inside of the oven where I had sprayed the Easy-Off Oven Cleaner the night before. DH says, “Okay, I think you’re ready to start cleaning the oven!” I just looked at him and said, “What do you think I’ve been doing for the past 45 minutes?” He just laughed and said, “It’s just that one vine again!”

So I pulled down the oven door (that STILL is not able to be taken off) and start cleaning the inside of the door. I make the first couple of swipes to wipe it off and walk over to rinse out the sponge and the door slams shut! Crap, now how am I supposed to open it and why did it slam shut? As it turns out, without all the weight of the glass the metal casing, the handle, etc. there isn’t enough weight to hold the door open. I finally find a way to get the door open again and continue to clean the door—holding it open with one hand. I started scrubbing out the bottom of the door, holding the door open with—now I know you all can picture this—with my stomach. Thank heavens DH DIDN’T take a picture of that! He finally says, you take a few minutes break and I’ll put the door back together so it will stay open.

He puts the door back together and then I spent another hour (maybe more) scrubbing out the inside of the oven. I really hate cleaning ovens. I know if I did it more often it wouldn’t be so much trouble. But when you have lasagna that spilled over into the bottom of the oven and then something else spill over on top of that and it has burnt into the oven like lava rock it isn’t fun!

All of this to say, that what I thought was just simply washing the dishes the night before continued into an all morning project. God’s love is like that. He starts out by taking your hand and just walking beside you. Gradually you find that He is not just a friend, but your best friend. Your best friend becomes your confidant and support. You rely on Him for everything and as a result He is there for you. He loves you so much that He gave His only Son to us. His Son died on a cross to take on the burden and forgive all of our sins. His Son loves us enough to be there and bring us to our heavenly Father. And we in turn love Him enough to tell others about His amazing love and grace. Just like my oven, the end result is sparkling clean—inside and further inside and out! All the gook and crud has been cleaned out—just as Jesus’ love for us and His death and resurrection has cleaned out all the gunk and crud in us. Our belief in Him, our love for Him, our faith in Him, and our daily walk with Him is what keeps us going. There are times we are mad at results (often from choices we have made) and blame Him. There are times we just don’t understand why things happen and blame Him. But He is such a loving Father that he takes all that we throw at Him and puts His arms around us and loves us still.

Our one vine—from God’s love to giving His Son, to sacrificing His Son on a cross to save us all, to His resurrection, to our love of Him as the Holy Trinity; what a wonderful vine it is. And it is so awesome that sometimes we have the ability to start one project that leads to another to another to another all to take away the gook and crud, whether it is in the yard, in the kitchen, sewing, at work, or whatever. It all helps to remind us that He is also THE vine that stretches and hold us all together in His love; that no matter what we can Fully Rely On God.

Something Worn, & Never Worn Again? Do Something BIG!

2009-02-08T08:09:00.002-06:00

Time to reminisce a bit! It is the time just before the beginning of spring. You are a junior or senior in high school. Oh what a special time that is. The girls are giddy, the boys are silly. But one thing is beginning to take over EVERYONE'S mind. PROM! Who will ask me? Who will I take? and the BIGGG question of all----WHAT AM I GONNA WEAR? Remember those times? For some of us, that seems like a lifetime ago--wait 29 years IS a lifetime ago! But for others it isn't that long ago.

OK ladies it is time to start cleaning out those closets--spring is coming and the idea of spring cleaning is starting to fill the air. Am I right? How many of you have formals sitting in your closets that have been worn once (maybe twice) and will NEVER be worn again? How many of you have sisters, nieces, daughters, etc. that will never wear those formals again? Oh and let's not forget the men--do they have suits that just hang there waiting for another wedding or funeral to arrive--only to find out the suit doesn't fit anymore? I have a solution to this problem for you.

I went to Maddie Dean Photography this morning and Sara had received this most wonderful letter from one of my fellow teachers in the northern part of the state. I am ashamed that I did not know anything about this plea for help--and I live here in Mississippi. This is the email that Sara received (with contact information removed due to security reasons).

My name is Suzette Matthews and I recently graduated from Texas Tech University and moved to the Mississippi Delta in an effort to help poverty stricken schools with Teach for America. For those of you who are not familiar with TFA, it is a program for "recent college graduates of all majors and career interests and working professionals to commit two years to teach in urban and rural school.in our highest-poverty communities" (www.teachforamerica.org).

Upon moving to the Delta, I have experienced a number of unimaginable challenges in the classroom and outside of it. My students are exceptionally poor and very much behind academically and socially. Although my students suffer horrible injustices everyday, I feel as if they should have somewhat of a normal high school education, academically and in extra-curriculars. With this being said, my students would like to put on a prom this year and have been saving their money to have the best prom in high school history.

This is a great feat for them, since their families do not have money to buy them clothes to wear to school, much less for prom. The school district has been kind enough to give the Junior class money to host the prom, but by no means is it going to make ends meet. The girls cannot afford dresses and the boys cannot afford tuxes. I know that what a person wears to prom shouldn't really matter, but when you think back to your own high school days, you would have been mortified if you did not have a dress to wear to prom, only your school uniform.

I am forever grateful that I grew up in the community that I did and never had to worry about this. I know that after I wore my dresses once, I never wore them again; they just hung in my closet. So, with help from surrounding communities and you, I know that I can find enough dresses for my students to have the prom they've always dreamt of.

What I am asking is that you look through your daughter's old formal dresses and perhaps yours and donate them to the students at Ruleville Central High School. This would be a great donation for a tax write-off and would also help you get a jump start on your spring cleaning. If you can participate in anyway possible it would mean the world to my students. The deadline to donate will be 2/25 (Wednesday).

We plan to have a fun bazaar for the girls and help them choose a wonderful dress.I would also like to thank all of you who donated books and money for my classroom. We now have a great lending library that I run right out of my classroom. I know that these books are making a difference for my students.

With heartfelt gratitude,

Suzette Matthews

Now ladies, I remember when my daughter was a senior. Hurricane Katrina had just come through and wiped out the Mississippi Gulf Coast. We were uncertain if our children would graduate that year as we had to be out of school for so long. But the worries of our children weren't just about graduation. They were worried about what they would wear to PROM! 95% of the students along the coast had lost most everything they owned. We were doing good to get children (and adults) into clothes that were acceptable for wear for school. Many of the students who used to have after school jobs didn't--the places they worked were gone. How were the families along the coast going to be able to find and pay for (remember the adults lost their jobs and businesses too) a prom dress or tuxedo or suit? The wonderful nation we call ours--the good ol' US of A and its giving citizens came to the rescue. Truck loads of formals donated across the nation were brought into the schools for our girls to choose from. The girls had a blast going through the dresses, finding the "perfect" one for their special night. My daughter didn't lose all she had--but we also did not have the means to purchase her a dress that year. She was one of the lucky recipients of one of those formals. I can't begin to tell you how happy she was that night--wearing a dress that was donated by someone else--so that she could attend her senior prom.

So come on ladies, go through the closets of formals you have left over from your years of proms or debutante balls or even those of you that have had to attend military balls. If you have formals that no longer fit and you're kidding yourself that you can get back into them one day--or even have a need for them again--leave a comment here for Suzette. I will be sure that she gets the message and tells you how to get these things to these children that want to be like every other junior and senior in the nation--and go to prom.

Group 4 Block Progress

2009-02-07T19:12:00.009-06:00

Ok so I've gotten a little more done today than I thought! LOL I've got a good number of the squares cut and some sewn for the 9 squares necessary for the Rainbow Quilt Sampler Swap group 4 (yeah I was one of the crazy ones that joined 2 groups!). Obviously I've had some help doing this. This is one of 5 cats that like to HELP me! LOL As you can see, Oreo is trying to help hold the pieces down while I get the last couple of pieces turned the right direction.

His little brother (ok so none of my cats are from the same litter, but they are my children afterall, so I call them brothers and sisters--along with the two dogs as well) on the other hand is not quite taking such an active roll in this quilt. Mater is just trying to hold the other things on the table out of the way so that I can work on this project. Of course, he would tell you, "Oreo has been sleeping right along beside me until you started laying things out. Now he's going to get the spotlight? You just wait until the next project!" And then there is the sleeping old lady who just wants me to leave her alone--although she also has to be in the same room with me while I'm working. Savannah just prefers to be asleep on the second chair in the room tucked up under the cutting table where she can sleep in the "dark".

All of this drama from my cats just to show you what the quilt square is going to look like. Now you have to realize that none of these squares have yet been pressed or sewn together (well duh, that's obvious!) But none the less, those of you that happen to drop by that are in group 4 of the quilt swap will get an idea of what that square will look like. I hope you like it--as I've got too many squares cut out now to change it! LOL I think its going to look pretty.

Option 1--as Originally planned

I thought about swapping the pinwheel to the maroon and floral print putting the white on the outside. But I kind of like it this way. But will that then be too much "creme" to everyone else's white and ____ squares?

Option 2: Ok so one of my bottom middle squares is turned wrong, but you ge the idea.

Option 3:

Option 4:

I need some opinions here--preferably from the folks in the swap. However, you know me, I take opinions from most everyone! And since I've given 4 options, I'm sure someone will come up with option 5 or 6 just to throw my brain totally out of whack! Oh wait, that really ISN'T that hard to do anymore!

So STOP lurking (at least for just today) and give me an opinion on this. I really need to know before I start sewing these squares together!

Oh Why Not?

2009-02-07T14:50:00.004-06:00

I wasn't going to post until later in the day (apparently 2:51 in the afternoon is not late enough in the day;~) but I will go ahead and show the latest row of the calendar quilt challenge. I showed that the month of January was all finished. Well, I finally got myself all geared up and I have finished the first week in January. This is an aweful picture, but at least it kind of shows the 7 squares for the first 7 days of February.

I think I'm also going to show off the fabric that I bought for the Maroon squares for Group 4 of the Rainbow Quilt Sampler Swap. You can actually see the fabric above as well, but I figure I'll show the larger pieces here! You know, it's funny, when you want to find a color of something you can't ever find it--stop looking and it will be everywhere. When I wasn't looking for maroon fabric I saw beautiful pieces everywhere that I fell in love with (and didn't have the money to get). Now that I'm looking for it??? Well, this is what I found--I know it is showing more red in this picture, but I swear the stuff changes colors on me everytime I move it! I think that's one reason I like it so much. Thought I'd try to work a bit of the maroon floral into the square too, don't know quite how I'll do that yet, but YOU"LL see as soon as I figure it out!

OK I'm off to get working on something or other! If, and I do mean IF, I get anything accomplished that is noteworthy, I'll come back and show it. Otherwise, you'll just have to wait for tomorrow! Have a great day (or what's left of it) y'all!!

Pink Saturday adds NEW to the Stash!

2009-02-07T09:12:00.008-06:00

People! Beverly at How Sweet the Sound hosts Pink Saturday. Pause at her Place to see Plenty of other Pretty Pink items that Precious Pink Participating People are Putting out for Presentation.

Pink Saturday??? Oh my, what AM I going to find for Pink Saturday? Oh, I know, I went shopping Tuesday and haven't shared my addition to my stash yet! So that being said, here goes! Look at all the PINK in these fabrics! Many of these were 50% off for Valentine's Day. Guess they figured if they put them on for 50% off they'd sell better. I don't know, but I loved them!

And with a darling niece that lives in Washington state and a baby girl arriving at my son's house in May and possibly a girl arriving in Oct--that's still up for grabs at this point (the sex of the child that is), I needed PINK fabrics to add to my stash. I especially love the PINK with the ladybugs. I bought enough for a little girl dress of somesort and extra for quilting. All the quilters have just inspired me to do something with my "free time" other than sit in front of the TV. Oh and I had to have some new patterns! (Not that I didn't have any to begin with, but its always fun to get new ones too!) These are 3 of the new ones I bought--(Hobby Lobby had all McCall patterns on for $1--and now I see where Hancock has all McCall patterns for $.99 this week).

"Wear Red Day" Focuses on Women's Heart Health

2009-02-06T20:25:00.001-06:00

"Wear Red Day" Focuses on Women's Heart Health
February 6th, 2009 @ 8:02am
by Jeremy Foster/KTAR (http://ktar.com/?nid=6&sid=1039752)
Today is "National Wear Red Day for Women" to raise awareness of cardiovascular disease.
Heart disease is the number one cause of death among women in the United States, said Dr. Christine Sellberg of Phoenix Heart.
"One in three women dies from cardiovascular disease, but a lot of women and their physicians aren't aware that women's risk is that high," said Sellberg.
The goal of wear red day is "to increase women's awareness of cardiolvascular disease and to encourage them to get their risks checked out," she said.
Sellberg urged women to take charge of their heart health. She said the best way to do that "is to identify what risk factors you have for cardiovascular disease, including any elevations of blood pressure, high cholesterol, high glucose, being overweight or being physically inactive."
The wear red day is sponsored by the American Heart Association.
I feel so stupid! I’ve worn red almost all week. The day I should be wearing red, I’m wearing blue! GRRR
If you knew you were going to have a stroke tomorrow, would you do something about it today? It’s called the Silent Killer because half of all victims of heart attack and stroke have no warning. But in as little as fifteen minutes you can determine if you are at risk for heart attack or stroke with SafeHeart Health Screens. So, I went today to have a Carotid Artery Ultrasound Screen, Carotid Intima Media Thickness (CIMT) Screen, Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Screen, Peripheral Vascular Disease Screen, and an Atrial Fibrillation Screen done Safe Heart Health Screens. I don’t know if they have this kind of testing in your area, but it is well worth the effort to find out. Or at least talk to your doctor about the screenings.

2009-02-05T19:41:00.006-06:00

I suppose I should get back into the swing of blogging--I only had 100+ blogs that I just finished going through and commenting on of blogs I regularly read and follow. That's enough to make me tired. But I should also get back to posting.

First of all, with as many people that follow my blog I can't believe that I only had 1 comment on this posting from Saturday (at least I think it was Saturday, maybe it was Sunday). So I am going to post it again. If I get no takers then other than Cassie, then she will be the lucky recipient of something I feel is lovely and worthy enough to give to a friend.

Ok, so the first three to sign up (international welcome) will receive some Shelly's Stitchery goodness sometime this year. In return, you will make a post on your blog and offer the same thing to three of your blog readers. So, come on....who wants to be part of this great event?

Second, I want to thank Melissa for thinking enough of me and my blog to give me this award!

This award is a "Thank You" award. I am passing this onto other Bloggers and then you can pass it along with a link back to me! I am passing this along to you because I love your blog!

I am sending this out to:

Barb at http://nanabarbsmusings.blogspot.com/

Barb at http://bejeweledquilts.blogspot.com/

Simone at http://simonedeklerk.blogspot.com/

Jen at http://reannalilydesigns.blogspot.com/

Holly at http://sewholly.blogspot.com/

Missy at http://quiltedpig.blogspot.com/

Third, I want to let everyone know about the fat quarter swap at Darci's. You need to hurry over there and sign up for the swap ASAP as the deadline is soon approaching.

Rainy Days & Mondays Always Get Me.....

2009-02-02T19:37:00.011-06:00

Hmmm Doesn't the lyric say, "Rainy days and Mondays always get me down"? Well, if that's the case I guess today would be the day for that. It is after all, a Monday. It has rained all day. And well the day was a good one until I had the sky fall on me! No I'm not Chicken Little running around crying, "the sky is falling the sky is falling!" But none the less, I feel like the sky has fallen on me. I received the news today that my 20 year-old-daughter is pregnant--the one WITHOUT a steady boyfriend. The one that the "father," and we'll use that term loosely for now, doesn't have a job and sleeps on a friend's couch instead of having a place of his own. I haven't figured out if I should be excited, anxious, upset, happy, all of the above or if I even know what I am feeling right now--if anything. I think I'm numb!

On to the rest of the day. Today is Blue Monday. I need a bit of cheering up. So I will show you something that almost always cheers me up (well except when the stove looks a mess and the sink is piled high with dishes!)!! I hope you're ready for this. If you thought the rest of my house (that you've seen so far) has color, you haven't seen anything yet! Shall we continue with the tour of the house? THIS is my kitchen! You will notice that around the top of my kitchen is blue and that each of the cabinets are red, BLUE, green, and yellow!

As you can see, our love for Disney continues from the diningroom (that I showed last Monday) into and throughout the kitchen. Each cabinet has a Disney character painted in the middle. That is nemo and the coral reef under the kitchen skink and Pooh and his pals are under the stove top. Oh, and I see Jaspar, one of 5 cats snuck into one of the pictures!If you look real close, you can even see that our glasses and dishes are Disney as Mickey is waving at you! Each of the drawers have mirror imaged BLUE Mickeys as well. And with the exception of a few things on the BLUE tile floor, you actually have pictures of it fairly clean as well! LOL I hate to have cluttered counters and dirty dishes--but for some reason, the dishes keep getting dirty and the counters get things piled on them. Other than to stop cooking and eating, any ideas how to stop that? LOL Just kidding!

February 1--End or Beginning?

2009-02-01T22:47:00.002-06:00

Today is February 1--So does that make it the beginning of a new project or the end of another? Neither it is the continuation! I'm speaking of the Calendar Quilt being hosted by Rachel. I finished sewing up January and have decided with what to start February--although I think I'll wait for the sneek peak of February's squares. This is how January turned out--I'll add sashings later to it. First here is the excel file that will be one page and later printed onto printable fabric to be merged into the back of the quilt. That way I'll have some record as to why I did what I did!

This is what the actual fabric square "block" looks like!

I also wanted to thank Kris for helping me figure out why my YCMT quilt was not looking as it should. Once I took her suggestion to trim off the excess of the triangles, this is what it looked like.

Good luck figuring out which are the original sewn squares and which are the ones that now look like they were originally sewn together. Trust me, I sewed the thing and I have troubles figuring it out--except going from the outside squares in--and then I lose track somewhere in the middle! I guess that's a good thing?

There was more that I wanted to discuss today, but I will save it for another time--as my coach has already turned into a pumpkin, my coachman is back to being Gus the dog--who is already asleep NOT waiting for me, and the horses? well they've turned back into 4 of my cats. So I shall go find the bed and see what will become of BLUE MONDAY tomorrow!

YCMT Quilt Need HELP!!!!

2009-01-31T17:09:00.003-06:00

OK I feel mighty stupid right now. I laid my squares on point as in Option 2. I filled in with the triangles. I then sewed it together. And THIS is what I have. It looks NOTHING like what it's supposed to look like. NOTHING square about it. HELP!!! Kim, How can I fix this mess????

Group 3 Swap Folks-1 done 8 to go!

2009-01-31T11:54:00.003-06:00

Hey guys, How are your squares coming? I have to admit, I'm frustrated with mine. It is not at all coming out the size that it should--and I don't know why.

But if you're interested in seeing what the light blue square for the swap is going to look like for group 3; here it is. The first (3) block(s) is(are) done, now I only have to make 8(6) more just like it!

Pink Saturday--Another Room to Show!

2009-01-31T07:12:00.005-06:00

People! Beverly at How Sweet the Sound hosts Pink Saturday. Pause at her Place to see Plenty of other Pretty Pink items that Precious Pink Participating People are Putting out for Presentation.

Since I seemed to blow peoples' minds with my diningroom, I think it is time for another installment of my house tour. Now remember is a Pink Saturday, so the room must be PINK--you think? So hold on to your hats and your bloomers--for the PINK storm is coming!

It is difficult to get good pictures of this room--it is very small and if you don't use a flash everything is yellow & hazy. If I use the flash it turns out very washed out. Don't have a clue how I got this one so clear! My daughter decided when the last of the brothers moved out that this was to be the GIRLS bathroom of the house. It didn't matter that her sister doesn't like pink. She wanted a lighter pink on top and an almost fushia pink on the bottom. When we got finished, it was such a stark line between the two we thought about getting wallpaper. We thought about it until I found an old sea sponge and left over red, yellow, purple, light pink, fushia pink, purple and white. I just started sponging away and ended up with the color scheme of colors between the light and darker pinks. It still didn't look finished so I added the stamped flowers and then drew in te stems and dots in the middle. We trimmed all the door trims in the dark purple from my sewing room.

In case I can't get the rest of my pictures in here of this, then you'll be able to see how we finished the rest of this room.

"Pay it Forward"

2009-01-31T06:05:00.002-06:00

I am taking part in the Pay It Forward movement that I saw over at Robin's blog. I have always loved the idea behind PIF's and have never had a chance to do one in the past.

How this one works is quite simple. The first three people to sign up on this post will receive a surprise PIF sometime within the next 365 days. Then each of my three players will invite their own three players and so on. Doesn't that sound like fun?

Ok, so the first three to sign up (international welcome) will receive some Shelly's Stitchery goodness sometime this year. In return, you will make a post on your blog and offer the same thing to three of your blog readers.

So, come on....who wants to be part of this great event?

Finish it Friday! Finishing the UFOs!?!

2009-01-30T06:44:00.003-06:00

OK I'm running late and I really need to get my self ready to walk out the door. But I have to add this little guy in here! He is so CUTE! And maybe it will inspire me to finish some of those UFOs. Check back tonight and see if he actually inspired me or not.

Now for an update--if you can call it that!

This is how my day started after I first posted this cutie of a guy first thing this morning!**************************************************************************************

What a way to start a Finish it Friday!

This is definitely something I should have taken care of long ago (and didn’t realize that I needed to!). I got stopped ½ a mile from work this morning by one of our local officers in blue due to an expired license plate! ACCKKK!!! Luckily I only got one ticket as the insurance card I had with me had expired in 2007—now that doesn’t mean I don’t have insurance, I just didn’t have the correct card on me! Needless to say, THAT will be remedied before getting into the car to leave work! On the way home, I think I will be stopping by the courthouse and renewing my car tags! Lordy, what a day! Wait, let's rethink that, I'll have to drive even further to go to the courthouse--now I'm paranoid. So I'll go straight to the house, let hubby fool with the courthouse on Monday morning after he drops me off at school! Yeah that is a much better plan!

Thanks to Melissa at Three Prince Designs found this wonderful site, http://www.oneprettything.com/ that has so many great crafty things on it. That site led me to http://www.craftideas.info/ to make these wonderful “Year of the Ox” free hanging mobiles with my students. I should have made one for myself as well; but I think the students enjoyed making theirs! We actually finished them up yesterday and will be hanging them up in the hallway for all to enjoy today--ok this didn't happen either, we couldn't get the ladder today.
If you want to see more Year of the Ox ideas you can go to either http://www.craftideas.info/ or to http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/ that also has several Chinese New Year crafting ideas.

What we DID get finished was the ox made out of handprints. Now for those with small children, this is really a fun thing to do--although I don't know how to explain that the poor ox has 8 legs! But for some reason, it actually looks like an ox (even with 8 legs)! This is something else I found at http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/.

Now you may be wondering why in the world I'm posting things I do/did in my classroom as opposed to things I've done with my kids. For one thing I've had people ask what class I teach.

2nd-Hmmm, let's think about this a bit, my youngest is 17 and lives with his dad--that leaves no kids in the house. My class on the other hand is with me from 8:00-2:30 EVERY WEEK DAY! I have 6 students--but most days that is MORE than enough. You see, my students are ALL severely/profoundly developmentally delayed, multiply handicapped, and medically fragile. Many times in the last 23 years I have been counselor to the parents, as well as teacher, nurse, physical and occupational therapist, speech therapist, the hearing impaired instructor, etc. etc. etc. Yes all of those specialists are at my school. Yes they all see my students. But due to the fact that our school is still a separate facility, they have to see ALL the students and often their time is limited with each student. So, when their different therapies recommend the range of motion or oral motor exercises or teaching the signed language, or even tube feeding, then my assistant and I do that in addition to all the other things we do in a day. The few of my students that have any oral communication at all call me "momma". For some I'm as much "momma" as I am teacher--in some cases over the years I've been more momma than anything else. These students are the love of my life, my heart, my soul and everyone that I've ever taught has a special place in my heart for them. I've gone to their funerals and cried more than some of the family members. I've been the one to sing at one of their funerals and it almost killed me. I have family members of one of the angels that still comes back to see me, even though its been 4 years since she lost her son. My students are not students, they become family. Most of the parents come in and give me and my assistant hugs whenever they're at the school. So when I show off things my assistant and I did with our students, you will now understand why! Oh and by the way, none of them cannot physically perform any of the tasks independently to create any of our art/craft projects. Some of them cannot even do it with hand-0ver-hand assistance as their poor little bodies don't allow such movements. However, even when Micki and I do almost all of the work, we always have something on it that they have helped glue or paint or even throw things at (like the artic fox you will see shortly that they threw salt on while the paint was wet to make it glimmer).

That being said, the Chinese New Year is what we finished up the month of January with; but the rest of the month we spent talking about animals that live in the polar regions. Here are pics of some of the things that they/we did during the month.

Another thing I got FINISHED was that I paid for 26 boxes of those OMG wonderful Girl Scout Cookies! I absolutely love GS cookies. Of course, they are no longer the $.50 or $1 a box that they were when I was selling them way back in the dark ages! They are now $3.50 a box and there are only 12 cookies in some of those boxes! But they're so good. We get enough between what I order and what hubby orders to last almost a year (we freeze them).

The other thing that I DID get FINISHED today was my lesson plans that were due today. I know that doesn't sound like a big deal of any sort, but by golly about the time you think you have the time to get them done and turned in, something else happens to cause you to be late with them. But they are turned in and I'm off the hook for another month! Whew!

I'm off to see what things around the house I can FINISH today--before we go to dinner and then afterwards as well! I'll write more on those things later. (If there are any of "those" to write about! LOL)

Am I Stuck in a Time Warp?

2009-01-29T21:23:00.003-06:00

Lordy, it's no longer the beginning of the week. It is now closer to the END of the week and to the weekend. I feel like I've lost a few days in the week--as I have been pretty good about getting at least a little bit written everyday--and a little progress on other things. Now I think I've been lost in a time warp of some sort.

Maybe its because we have been talking about Chinese New Year all week. Does that mean I'm back at Jan 1 and I didn't know it? No, Chinese New Year didn't start until Jan. 26--which was also Australia Day. So for all of you Down Under, Happy Belated Australia Day. From pictures I've seen it was sunny, warm and beautiful weather for you--while we here in the states have been suffering with cold, colder, and coldest temps! South Mississippians are certainly no strangers to cold, but not THIS cold for THIS long! Now back to Chinese New Year.

I knew that the Chinese New Year did not (or rarely) falls on the same day as most of us celebrate the New Year; but I never knew why. Who says you can't teach a teacher? I have found out that they celebrate the new year based on a lunar calendar. In addition, the celebration can last up to 15 days with the completion of the celebrations comprising of a lantern parade. And here I thought that they only had the lanterns and dragons and fireworks on one day. Of course for those in the states that have had to Americanize things, many times their celebrations are on the 1st of their new year and the 15th with smaller family and community celebrations in between. I also didn't know that the color red is THE color for the Chinese New Year--with other colors splashed in.

So we have entered the year of the ox--hmmmm if memory serves me right, I was born in the year of the ox as well. Does that mean its going to be a good year for me? Compared to the last couple of years, I certainly hope so. It is about time things started going in the good direction for us. Don't take me wrong, we haven't had BAD years; they've just been mediocre years. We certainly haven't had years as bad as some that we've known or read about. And I certainly cannot see us getting to the point of the poor family in the news that killed their five children and themselves. But it would be nice to have a GOOD year! So far, I think we're on the right road; we have found out we'll be first time grandparents in May; Dave's oldest is getting married in April; and I've found this wonderful circle of friends in blogland that are quilters, moms, women, organizers, designers, hand and machine embroiderers, crafters, thread artists, and all around great folks to check in with and talk to--and some even check in on my blog and talk with me! In addition, many of these bloggers are good, strong faithed women that have a good relationship with their/our God. Now what more could you ask for than that!?! So as I said, so far, we're on the right road to a great year!

That being said, here's to a great year, great quilts, great friendships, and great faith for this new year--whether it is the calendar used by most in the Americas, Africa, Europe, Australia, etc. or if it is the lunar calendar used by the Chinese. And as a special new year's treat for myself, I gave my blog a bit of a facelift. Since you all have found out my not-so-secret love of Disney and all things Disney, I found this blog template and header called Mickey's Twin Sister on HippoScraps.com. Ashley has many free as well as those you pay for backgrounds, templates, etc. etc. etc. Go check her out and see what you and she can come up with if you're looking for a bit of a facelift for your blog!

The clock says it is time for my coach to return to a pumpkin--so I shall call it a night and hopefully tomorrow I'll get to show you some actual work I've gotten done instead of just running my mouth!

Blue Monday! --- Plumbing Blues

2009-01-26T19:27:00.006-06:00

Blue Monday! Now is that a good thing or a bad thing? Hmmmm in the general sense of it over at Smiling Sal's, it is a GOOD thing. Unfortunately, DH was definitely feeling the blues as he went to clean the sink pipes. Oh how I wish I'd been here when he went under the sink to clean out the U joint. And even more wish I had a camera filming while the old pipe leading to the U joint crumbled in his hands. I'm sure that it would not have been pretty (verbally), but I really would have loved to have seen it when "All I have to do is clean out the joint" became "Hi, I'm at Home Depot trying to find the parts to fix the sink! Now if this was something that should have been funny, I'm sure it wouldn't have been. But under the circumstances, I'm sure I could've gotten a couple of really good OMG shots! After all, we're talking a 6 foot man in a bathroom that isn't even 6 feet long between the sink and opposite wall and only about 3 feet wide right in front of the sink! Now you can understand why I said I'm sure there were OMG shots! Alas, I was at work and was unable to capture any of the plumbing antics.

Now on to my REAL Blue Monday. I have threatened to show my Dining Room as my Blue Monday for a couple of weeks. No one would believe me if they just heard about my wonderful dining room. And I'm sure many would say--how can you eat in a room like this. So here is your chance to see what kind of Disney fanatics we really are! Now all I have to do is find the pictures! LOL

(PLEASE don't look at the mess on the table and the buffet and everywhere else! I'm almost too embarrassed to show these pictures; but at the same time, you're supposed to be looking at the BLUE walls, not the rest of the stuff! LOL) And before you ask, yes, my daughters and I did all the painting of the walls and the swirls and the stars for the Disney wand swish of stars effect.

These two walls are opposite each other. The wall with all the plates on it is the back side of my kitchen cabinets. As yu can see, there are plates missing from my Fantasia series, and the one at Disney (far right top) is the only remaining plate I have of that series after our hasty departure from the arrival of Hurricane Katrina. Although they were not lost IN the storm, they were lost DUE to the storm as we were unable to pack them properly before leaving.

These are the other 2 walls of the room--the doorway next to Mater leads to the entry way while the doorway to the jammin' Mickey is a sliding glass door to our backyard. Since this picture was taken, two 9" x 13" frames have been added under Mickey with all of our Hard Rock Cafe collector pins! So it isn't as barren a wall as it looks. Yes that is my cutting table (when I had no where to put it) sitting there in front of my buffet and next to a bedframe we no longer have that is in front of my prized cedar chest--built by my grandfather--holding a number of my grandmother's quilts. Originally the china hutch was on the wall with Mickey Mouse and we didn't move it when painting the swirls. So it has remained un-swished since then. Hope you enjoyed the tour of my dining room. Maybe I'll share my 4 colored kitchen ---including BLUE---next Monday!

Task 2 Saturday Agenda Well Under way!

2009-01-24T13:03:00.004-06:00

Man oh man, am I on a roll this morning or what? Hee Hee! I have cut out all the fabric (that I have) in the light blue and white strips for the Mixed T block for the Rainbow Sampler Quilt Swap group 3. I'll put in pics of the fabric cut now and then after I get it going and I KNOW for sure that that's what I'm supposed to be doing as I sew it together, I will put those pics in as well! That way you in group 3 that check back here can see what your light blue square will look like.

Step 1 cut the strips

Edited to add steps 2-7:

Step 2: lay fabric right sides together perpendicular to each other

Step 3: Draw line from corner to corner

Step 4: You can see line drawn. Sew ON this line

Step 5: After sewing, trim to 1/4"

Step 6: Cut strips again so that they are the right length and equal widths

Step 7: OK these aren't all trimmed, but after all are trimmed, start laying out so that the square will look something like this when sewn together (HOPEFULLY) :) And here I thought I was choosing an easy square to do for this swap! LOL

NanaBarb I want you to know that I have heard your plea for group members and have answered the call (if no one else signs up) for group 4 members. Try to convince Barb once again to do it--since she said that she really really wanted to!

Anyone else that hasn't signed up for this quilt swap, there are 4 spots open (I think) in group 4. The deadline to sign up is January 26 (that's Monday). This isn't a hard one, just do the same block 9 times, send them off, get 1 of your own and 8 others back for a rainbow sampler quilt. What more could you ask for?

Task 3 of Saturday Agenda DONE!!

2009-01-24T12:45:00.002-06:00

Calendar 2009 Quilt Update:
In case you can't read the print on the picture--so much for my bright idea to put it in paint and then just type it in! It says: Here is the updated picture through January 25, 2009. Is it just me or is it not gelling together? Maybe I should have done as everyone else did and just do strips. Guess we'll just keep going and see what happens with February and figure out how I'm going to separate the two months. Anxious to see how everyone else's quilts are looking. January is almost over y'all!

Task 1 of Saturday Agenda DONE!

2009-01-24T12:04:00.004-06:00

Woo Hoo! I'm finally caught up with YCMT quilt step 6! I have all 16 squares sewn together in pinwheels. They've all then been squared off to 6 1/2" squares! I will show you the picture of the 16 squares laying side by side. DON'T look too closely for the mistakes. THERE ARE A LOT OF THEM!!!! But this step is done. So when Kim is ready, I'm ready for the next step--I guess. LOL ;)

Another Saturday, Another "Work" day!

2009-01-24T08:53:00.005-06:00

Good Morning one and all--It is a beautiful Saturday morning on the (slightly wet) Sunny MS Gulf Coast! What a difference a week makes. We've had beautiful sunny but VERY COLD days. OK so those of you that live in the artic north (in other words, anywhere north of the Mason-Dixon line) would not call what we've had here cold, but we are just not used to days where the temps get to the upper teens and low 20s! Yesterday we finally had a day where we didn't have to wear heavy coats, gloves, hats and scarves! It got to almost 70 yesterday. As they say, if you don't like the weather, wait 10 minutes it will change! LOL OK so it took almost a week to see that change!

It is Saturday and that means I have a day of cutting, sewing, ironing, and oh yeah that dreaded word---HOUSEWORK. But that will come in between and after the other stuff! So on the agenda for today/this weekend?
1. Getting the YCMT squares finished sewn, ironed and squared off again. DONE!
2. Getting the strips for my Sampler Quilt Swap blocks cut--and hopefully start sewing them. DONE!
3. Post to the Calendar quilt with the updated pics of my quilt. DONE!
4. Hem 2 pair of pants for a co--worker.
5. Finish a pair of pj's for a good friend (that were supposed to be for Christmas).
6. Get my hubby's apron embroidered finally (that was supposed to have been Christmas also).
7. Finish my DIL's purse and a purse for one of my best friends, oh and there is one for my assistant and one for my daughter's best friend all sitting in various stages of completion too. UGH! Sometimes I hate being ADD!
8. And of course, more flowers for Mardi Gras--and eventually explain what all these flowers are for. Another 100 DONE!
9. Go through the blogs I'm following for their newest blogs (oh wait, I've already been through the 80 that Google Reader said were new and commented on many of those!). DONE!
10. Spend a little time reading--ok I only got 2 chapters read last week of my book. This may take a long to finish this book at this rate. But I've got all these neat things going, I don't want to take time out to read. Another chapter read! LOL
11. Start a Valentine table runner or door hanging (maybe both?--nah, there's not that much time this weekend).

OK, now that you know the plan, I'm off to get started. Hoping to see what you've been working on in your blogs this week. Oh, and if you want to shower a beautiful little girl with stickers who has just returned from surgery, go see Kaitlyn at her mom's blog!

One more thing, my comment box has been kind of lonely! If you're stopping by and browsing around here today, drop me a line and let me know you're here. (OK so I'm feeling like I'm blogging one sided today--I comment on others but they don't comment on mine with the exception of a few like Nana Barb, Carlotta, Jan, Tania, Holly, Amanda, Simone, Missy, Melissa, and forgive me but my mind has gone blank on names--there ARE a few others). I always appreciate comments--even like the one from the guy I'd never heard of or seen before when I did my blog on the inaguration! ;) Just rember to make them family friendly--you never know who is reading over your (or my) shoulder.

Why Do I????

2009-01-22T17:21:00.002-06:00

OK I know its a strange title, but it is definitely the way I feel today. So lets get started on the WHY DO I questions for the day!

Why do I quilt? Because I felt it was something I could do as well as I sew--especially since both my grandmother and my Mom were both quilters. I figured I could do it! I used to sew together the seams for the blocks they would later finish piecing together, so I should be able to sew together pieces for my own blocks.

Why do I make something so beautiful look so ugly? Quilts are beautiful. Quilts are practical. Quilts are warm. Quilts make you feel like you have love wrapped around you. So why do mine look like crap and they're only in the beginning stages? I KNOW how to sew 1/4" seams. I KNOW how to use a rotary cutter and ruler. I KNOW that these %^&*((*&^%$ points should be lining up but they just simply AREN'T!

Why do I feel like I never should have started these quilts (the YCMT quilt, Calendar quilt, Mixed T quilt--and thank heavens I didn't start on the Summer Mystery quilt, even though I had wanted to)? Oh that's an easy one! My quilts look horrible and the others I've seen are looking great--of the same quilts! If any of you in the swap are reading still, yes, I will be making my mixed T squares and sending them on and I'm sure you will each want to toss them when they are received! I just have very little confidence that mine will be as pretty as the squares you all sew and send.

Why do I blog? Well it started out because I had an online course that it was a requirement to do a blog for. I fell in love with it and I kept it--as I've always been one that loved to sit and write and write and write--just as I talk and talk and talk in person!
Do I expect others to want to read or "follow" my blog? Expect it--no! Surprised by it--yes! Feel flattered that people actually like to read what I write or at least want to see how stupid I can be in a day? Yes!
Will I be one of these that offers awards or prizes or give-aways to someone just to get folks to read my blog? No! If you don't read the blog because you want to, then don't expect me to reward you for sticking around to read it. Besides, you probably wouldn't want anything that I would have or make to give away anyway!
Do I read other blogs because of their prizes and give-aways? Hecky no! I read others blogs 1) to see how their day has been, 2) to check in on the day of someone I know has been ill, 3) to offer encouragement to someone that hasn't been feeling great about themself, 4) to check on the progress of others' quilts and crafts, 5) to see the crazy antics of some of the folks (or their children) because it reminds me so much of my own family, 6) to offer to be a cheering squad for those trying to lose weight (while I'm steadily putting on the pounds no matter what), 7) to see if anyone else is doing or feeling the same thing or way that I am that day, 8) to keep up with people, 9) to meet new people--even if it is just a virtual meeting, 10) to do something other than watch TV!

Why do I feel alone--when I know I have friends? I guess I'm beginning to feel like a hermit. I am losing touch with all those that had always been my really good friends. But I don't have anyone to hang out with--my best friends live hundreds to thousands of miles away from me. Those that have previously been my best friends have found others that they have more in common with or want to be with more than me. Others have other things in their lives that don't have anything to do with whats going on in my life and we have drifted apart or have no reason to "hang out" together. I have the blogging community--but even there I often feel like an outsider. Seems like I'm an outsider everywhere I go anymore.

Why do I continue when no one wants to read this drabble? I guess that's an easy one to answer as well. I don't expect people to want to read it. I just write to get it out of my system to hopefully feel better in the end.

So enough of the purging of the soul. I need to go find some stickers to put in the mail for one of the most beautiful little girls I've found through blogging. She is a 2 year old heartbreaker that has just come home from the hospital from having surgery for hip dysplasia. Her Mom and Dad have been there through it all and I know they are totally exhausted. I just wish I could be there to offer a little relief for them. The little girl, Kaitlyn, loves stickers and her mom was wanting her to be showered in stickers. So I'm off to find some stickers to put in an envelope for her. If you'd like to shower this sweetheart with stickers, go see Jen's blog and her Big Request!

OMG Someone Thinks Enough of My Blog to....

2009-01-20T19:25:00.004-06:00

Mama Krit (who honestly looks too young to be a mama!) of Simply Saavy sent not 1 but 2 blog awards my way today. I'm better at pullin' the wool over folks' eyes than I thought! Nah, I just am really good at yakkin'--always have been! So what are the two awards?

Well the first is award is-Honest Scrap.

The rules:

1. Honorees are to list 10 honest things about themselves - and make it interesting, even if we have to dig deep! (see below for my 10 honest things)

2. We are to pass the award on 5 bloggers we feel embody the spirit of the Honest Scrap.

The second award is-Your Blog is Fabulous

The Rules:

You just need to list 5 addictions (see below).

Find someone (or more, I chose 5) to send it to.

OK now that you know what they are, I guess I better get to the rules section--and get my "obligatory" lists done before sending these awards on their way (and yes, I'll let you know to whom they're going)!

10 Honest Things About Me:
1. I am scared that my body will not be able to keep up with my desire to teach long enough to get to retirement. The fibromyalgia, disc problems, high blood pressure are all taking a toll on my body faster than I want them to.
2. I love my husband more dearly than life, but I'd love to strangle him when he sticks his tongue out for every picture I take of him!
3. I am a closet eater--doesn't have to be sweets necessarily, I just like to eat when no one else is around so no one will see how much I really eat.
4. It drives me crazy that people have gone on so much about President Obama being the first African American President--sure, I know he's black. That isn't what bothers me. What bothers me is that so many see him as ONLY being black. Why can't people see the man for a man that has won the election on qualifcations instead of skin color? I don't care if someone is black, blue, red, orange, white or polka dotted--if they're qualified--then that's what matters!
5. I could eat a bag of oreo cookies from beginning to end without even thinking twice--just because I love to eat them. Of course, I'd pay for it later!!!!
6. I'm not only a closet eater, but also a chocoholic--although, I have been able to curb/control both of those problems over the last 2 or 3 years.
7. I truly love my step children as much as I do my own children--therefore when I say I have 5 children, it doesn't matter to me which of them I gave birth to and which I didn't!
8. I love the Lord my God, my family, my career--in that order!
9. I cry at most all movies (at some point or another), game shows when they win big, and some tv commercials--there's a reason my children used to tease me about being Niagra Falls when we'd watch movies together.
10. I am seriously addicted to blogging--can't seem to read enough of the ones I follow each day, comment on the ones I read, or write enough on my own--to the point that I tend to neglect test stitching for Kim of Embroodles, my quilts, my own sewing projects, etc. But I just can't seem to get enough of them! Thanks for being there for me to share with and to be shared by me.

My Addictions:
1. BLOGGING
2. embroidery stitching
3. CHOCOLATE
4. sewing--clothing, baby items, craft items, quilts, etc.
5. reading

As for my recipients for both awards?
Jen of Pure Joy
Barb of Nana Barb's Musings
Karyn of Karmic Kommotion
Rachel of p.s. i quilt
Amanda of hohnstreiterrific

Jo Jo Having Free Give Away!

2009-01-20T17:20:00.004-06:00

In honor of Jo's 100th post, she is having a free give away! What is the catch? You must go to her blog, tell her what 3 things you could not craft without and then go back to your blog to show a picture and blog about it. So now you know how its done, you will understand why I'm blogging about such here!

So what are my 3 you ask?
#1 Well, I couldn't craft/sew without my sewing/embroidery machine & computer. After all, how could I possibly keep up with all the new crafty ideas and embroidery & quilt designs if I didn't have a computer to blog and surf with? And how could I make those ideas and designs come true without a machine to sew them with?

#2 I couldn't cut those ideas out without scissors and a rotary cutter (with the board of course) and couldn't help complete them (well some of them, especially at Mardi Gras time) without a glue gun. It can burn like crazy but at the same time, it sure can save time!

#3 FABRIC FABRIC and more FABRIC! Spoken like a true fabricholic right? There are times when I'm glad I got rid of a good bit of my old stash --after all, a good bit of it was double knits (can you say ewwwwwwwwwww). At the same time, there are times I wish I still had all of it (well except for the double knits). But there is some of it that I wish I had--you know some of those funky prints we wore in the 70's? I might still have some of it in the attic, but I think I got rid of most of it. But the best part of getting rid of the old stash I had???? I get to buy new stuff and not feel quite as guilty! ;) And since my computer has a mind of its own (AGAIN) it won't let me insert the picture--or even pull up My Computer at this point. So I will publish this as is. Attempt to reboot and put the picture in later. OK it worked, now I'm taking Nyquil and going to bed! Maybe I'll finally feel better by tomorrow. I haven't in several days!

Day 2 of 3 day Weekend--How's my LIst?

2009-01-18T09:02:00.017-06:00

Hey, Hey, Hey! I got what seemed (on the list) to get LOTS done yesterday. I know I updated the list as I went along, but I figure its time to see the result of yesterday's work!

1st- YCMT Quilt
Only got half of the squares cut and trimmed, but its coming along.

I'll be caught up (hopefully) by the end of the day.

2nd - 365 day calendar progress

Yesterday I got January 2009 and Happy New Year embroidered onto the quilt. At least we'll know when the first day was and what year it represents. I also have the squares sewn through Tuesday. Here are the pictures on its progress!

3rd - Cleaning off Sewing Table

OK you saw the table, the rest of the room wasn't much better. I now can freely walk around the room (although I won't photograph my closet as its scary just opening the door!). So I think it is time to give you a tour of my small little sewing room--where everything can easily be gotten to from my rolling office chair--computer to any of the four machines to the cutting table to trim or place, etc.

This is the wall to the left as you walk in from the door. It has a peg board for my scissors, rulers, etc.; the pricncesses on the wall is a cork board I covered in fabric and put up yesterday; of course I have Mardi Gras masks on the wall and the turtle was drawn by my son, Zach; Don't mind the mess around the computer--its ALWAYS that way--having the corner desk is super for this corner of the room and then to have the machines off the side from it.

Obviously, this is the outside wall with nice bright airy windows. I like the light, but don't like the neighbor's son looking in. So we have the bamboo shades. There I have my two embroidery machines, another of the cork boards I covered yesterday and the other half of my computer table & filing cabinet.

This is the 3rd wall. You can see the wall where eventually I will have storage drawers or shelves that will hold all the stash. Currently part of the stash is there in bins (don't mind the stuff at the end of the table--that's where all the scraps were thrown at Christmas when I was cutting things out for everyone) and in the dresser, in bins, and on shelves in the closet. You can also see my other two cork boards I covered yesterday and put on the door. As a teacher I'm so used to having cork/bulletin boards around me that I miss them at home. I just don't like to see them plain--that's why we teachers put paper on the board first I guess! And of course, my beloved Eeyore is on the wall.
And this would be wall 4-back at to the door. As you can see it isn't a large space like I've seen some sewingrooms. But it is larger than having just the end of the diningroom table as I used to have. And it is larger than sharing a corner of the livingroom as I've done for a while. So I'm quite happy with it. Of course, there are always ways to improve it--like the fact that I NEED storage and shelving. But that is coming. The wall coloring wouldn't have been my first choice, but I do like it. And I painted it originally for 2nd daughter's bedroom. So you've now had a tour of my sewing room. The closet door I won't even attempt to open and photograph. After all, we all have some skeletons to hide, don't we? LOL

Someone asked me yesterday what kind of flowers I was making. These are your basic tissue paper flowers. There are 5 pieces of paper in each flower (well unless I can't count or the paper sticks together) that are folded accordian style with a flower wire folded over it and wrapped tightly. Then the papers are fluffed out to make a flower.

You ask Why I make so many of these? That's a little harder to explain!

Need a Little Help From My Friends!

2009-01-17T12:00:00.007-06:00

Hey guys, I know that some of you are in the rainbow sample quilt swap. I'm supposed to be doing my block in light blue. That isn't the problem. The problem is WHICH light blue fabric to choose! I like them ALL that I have here. And I need help choosing. I know its supposed to be in light blue and white mixtures, right? Would it look bad if I used two different light blue fabrics? Yeah probably would. Amanda, since you're at least in my group of the swap, can you please help me--as you will be receiving one of the blocks? Maybe you can get Shelley to stop in and take a look too! Anyone else that wants to make a comment and help me choose, I'd be appreciative!

Choice A

Choice B

Choice C

Choice D: TWO light blues together instead of a light blue and white? These would be the two light blues I'd use if that was the case.

All comments will be appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Plan of Attack for the Day (weekend?)

2009-01-17T07:27:00.017-06:00

OK this is the beginning of a 3 day weekend. And I have to have some sort of plan of attack--or I might sit here reading blogs and commenting on them all day! So to save y'all from having to look at all my comments here's what I want to do for this weekend.

Organize or at least clean off the cutting table. I've got to have some room to work and there sure isn't any HERE! DONE!

Get the Make-It-Up-As-You-Go quilt up to date--to step 5 that is. I got 1/2 of the squares "squared up" and trimmed and placed in groupings so I'll know where they go when I start sewing.

OK this is the first of my blocks to iron--please don't look at my stained ironing board cover! It IS clean!

This is the second set of blocks, you can see the first set is all ironed and sitting there patiently waiting for the next step!

This is set three (the final set of half square blocks to iron). You know, I read in someone's blog (I've been through so many I don't know who is who or if I'm up or down at this point) that you press not iron the squares so it won't distort the fabric. Well, you know, I'd never really thought about it, but she was right. When you iron you place the iron and move it across pulling the fabric and wrinkles out. When you press, you set it down and steam, pick it up to move. So I PRESSED all the squares, not ironed them (even though I do use the term iron).

Finally I have them all ironed. Now all I have to do is trim them. OK so now you know why this task of getting it up to date is on here. From what I understand, from other blogs, this is the worst part, and seems to take forever! But I'll get there.

OK if I'm right, these are the 3 combinations I can do as my pinwheels. Yes there's an oops in the first one, but seeing as how I have to trim them first anyway, what's a little oops between friends?

Get the calendar quilt up to date and start figuring out what embroidery designs I want on it for the month of January! DONE!
Start on the Mixed T square for the Rainbow Sampler Quilt Swap Thanks to those that are in our group that helped me choose between 3 different light blue fabrics to use, I can at least say that I NOW have chosen the fabric I'll be using!
If I'm really ambitious and think I can do it, start the Summer Mystery Quilt--although I can do the first couple of steps she has, that next one has me thrown for a loop. I'll have to really think about this one!
Stay up to date with all the blogs I'm following (ok I've done some of that this morning!) DONE!
Be sure to send extra hugs and love and prayers to Jennifer & Kaitlyn (Neal, too) as they prepare for Kaitlyn's surgery on Monday. DONE!
Oh yeah, and the obvious stuff--you know, vacuum, laundry, cook, dishes--the everyday dull, duldrom stuff of the world!
Make more flowers for the Mardi Gras parades. Susan told me there are only 30,000 more we have to make before Mardi Gras! Yikes, I better get busy. By now, I've usually done several thousand and I've barely done any this year. I'll see if I can find pics somewhere (or take them) to see if I can explain that better later. The last 240 gold and 120 green flowers (well that I currently have) were folded and wired tonight. Tomorrow I start fluffing them out so they resemble flowers.
Read some more of David Baldacci's Saving Faith

All in all, it looks like I'm going to be BUSY this weekend! As if that's any different than usual. I'll be checking in later in the day either with updates or just to check to see what the rest of my blogging friends are up to today! Hey, my DONE!s are increasing! Of course look at the number of DONE! items that seem to never end! But I'm still working at it! LOL What's the old addage, "A woman's work is never done"? And in the case of crafting women that is especially true. I'll write a new post later in the day to let you see my progress (other than writing DONE!). Looking at this I'd say I had a pretty productive day! I'll try to post the pictures of my accomplishments tomorrow.

Red = later in the day I edited this post.

Blue = edited one more time before going to bed.

OK I'm a Fabric Junky! And this ain't NO JUNK!!!

2009-01-15T22:38:00.005-06:00

OK OK I admit it!!! I'm a fabric junky--but the bank account and the hubby keeps me in line and won't allow me to "invest" in my "habit!!" But I can still look and drool, can't I?

I love fabrics. I love almost all fabrics. I love PRINTS of almost all shapes, styles, fashions, colors. BUT, I found some gorgeous fabrics today (thanks to Three Prince Designs I found them) at See Jane Run Go Jane Go! Well actually I found them at her Etsy shop and then found her blog and she also sells the Andalucia line at her store! Want to see what she is GIVING AWAY???
Isn't that gorgeous stuff? This is nothing, wait til you see all the other beauties she has! OMG I couldn't stop drooling and wondering if I could "rob Peter to pay Paul" to manage to purchase some of this gorgeousness! But alas, I'll have to wait until payday!

Calendar Quilt Journal--Cool Idea

2009-01-14T19:10:00.005-06:00

OK OK I think my computer is possessed. I KNOW I added another blog to follow and now I can't find it. I wonder if I didn't save it earlier! Oh well. At any rate, Nana Barb's Musings blog is delightful--but more importantly she gave me the coolest idea! I know lots of people keep quilt journals for their quilting projects (not that I've ever seen a need for that and don't quite understand them--at least the blank quilt journals I've seen at Barnes and Nobles). But the idea of journaling what each strip, square, whatever size/shape for the day for the calendar quilt is such an awesome idea. I was wondering--without actually writing it on each square which will take away from the quilt--how on Earth I would remember what each fabric was for and why I chose it. DUH, the queen of lists and I didn't think of writing a list of what each day stands for. I must really be brain dead. Now there are some that can remember (and how they do, I'll never know) the name of the fabric, the designer, the maker, etc. of their fabrics and where they got them, when they bought them, what the fabric was used for, etc. (talk about the ultimate list or note card maker!!!). Me on the other hand, there are days I can't remember my own name let alone where I got fabric and what its called! I'll be happy to just have a list of what day is what and IF there was a specific reason we chose that fabric! Some days I don't have a rhyme or reason to why I chose it--it's just there or it was the first fabric I touched or its the only fabric the cats weren't laying on, etc.

But I figure I better get going on this like SOON or I'll forget why I did anything! LOL And if I'm extremely lucky, this that I did in excel, copied the screen to put into paint, and then made a jpeg out of it, will work and I will be able to show you what I have so far on my calendar quilt journal.

I've already chosen fabric for the 19th and 20th, and you can see that I've typed in why those 2 days and then the 25th will have important or specific types of fabric for those squares. If possible, I've put in a color as the background that is close to the main color of a fabric--obviously not exact, but you only have so many colors to work with in Excel! LOL I just have the blank squares still as a pale yellow--so I know I still have to fill them in! OK so according to this I'm 2 days behind. I have to find something that is appropriate for the two days. Still thinking on that one(s). But at least I got it journaled and started so that I know what I'm doing now--or should I say, what I was thinking when I get a week or two, or month or two or more down the road and wonder "Why did I use that there? I can't imagine why I'd use THAT fabric!"

I also need to get to my YCMT Make-It-Up-as-You-Go-Along next step finished. That means I need to get the seams ironed to the "dark side" and then trim off the little corners--then wait for the next step. Ooo I'll have to get out the camera again and take pics so that I can see (and then show) what they look like all sewn, pressed, trimmed and how pretty they are--apart and together!

When I get started on my Mixed T square (for the quilt block swap I'm doing) I'll show the pictures of my progress there. At the moment I'm still debating on which of 3 fabrics I should choose for my light blues and if I should do both fabrics as different prints of the light blue or if I should do light blue and white. Maybe I'll see about pulling out the camera tomorrow and taking pictures of the fabric choices I'm debating on using and you can help me decide. I'm sure that Carlotta will have a vote on it, maybe even Sonja, but will anyone else out there be able to help me decide?

Quit being so quiet if you're reading and keeping up with my blog--even if you won't commit to following it like Carlotta did. Leave me a comment to let me know there's someone out there other than myself reading what I write! I know that I talk to myself a lot--and call it talking to the animals, but now I'm talking to myself and writing to myself in blogs! So does that make me mental or just pathetic? Either way, I love blogging and I'm glad that I've found something that I can actually blog about with others.

Hey Congress, What About US? the CRAFTERS?

2009-01-13T21:24:00.002-06:00

OK there is a buzz going through Allbrands Sew Forum just as there is (I'm sure) on most any forum where people that craft, make baby items, make items for toddlers, for children, for tweens visit. What is going to happen to us???? What will happen to those that have made a good bit of hobby/career money on crafting? What will happen to craft and art fairs/festivals? And here I was considering making enough items to set up a booth at a craft fair this spring. NOT NOW!!! I'm too scared to. I don't have the money for all the testing that is required. I don't make multiples and multiples of things to even have one item tested--as it is destroyed by the time testing is finished! OK so the bill is already passed. Congress has already made its deals with lobbyists and have come up with something they think will satisfy the American public--making things safer for our children in America. But this was all caused from CHINA not having any testing or safety guidelines. Now the small businesses are going to be having problems staying afloat. The crafters are going to be left in the dark--or the dark side--selling black market as you would until some little old crafter gets busted for selling an infant afgan that wasn't tested. Large businesses will have the prices driven extremely high--after all it is $50-thousands of $ to test ONE item--depending on how many components and materials are used in the item. And now, there are only CERTAIN testing facilities that can be used and authorize the safety of the item. I'm all for safety, don't get me wrong, but what about US? What about those of us with sites on Etsy? Websites? craft booths? etc.

Well there is a blog that is trying to help answer questions--although, I don't know that anyone will really have the answers before the law goes into effect in the next month or two. To check it out a bit more, click on the little bear to the right and see what you can do to help.

Hubby Has Joined the Fun!!!

2009-01-12T19:34:00.006-06:00

I can't hardly believe it--well I should believe it; but still---Hubby has joined in the fun of the calendar quilt with me! I had the first 4 empty blocks of the calendar square of January complete and then the first three days of January all sewn together. Don't have the machine embroibery on it yet, but I had that first week sewn together. On the way home from work today, I asked if he would join me in making this OUR calendar quilt. He said that he could do that--but he didn't want to sew it! He can sew, but he doesn't like to do it if he doesn't have to!

Well after supper tonight, he came into my inner sanctum (otherwise known as my sewing room) and started going through fabrics. He is the one that found the dove for a Sunday, the apples for the teacher for me starting back to school after Christmas holidays, the Orca whale since we started a unit on Tuesday, the multi-colored shimmer fabric (that doesn't show up in the picture real well) for our Krewe of Harlequin (that's a group of people that get together to celebrate Mardi Gras--and for those of you that don't know what Mardi Gras is, well then, I guess you'll have to look back at last year's posts to see what Mardi Gras is all about!) meetings. And because it is colder than a witch's tit in a brass bra (for South Mississippi), he chose Minnie building a snowman for today! As a joke he chose fish for Friday. I said, "Dave, it isn't even Lent yet and we're not Catholic so we DON'T dispense of eating meat on Fridays." He said, "Yeah, I know, but I think we should have a few FISH FRIDAYS on the quilt anyway. So, this Methodist family that doesn't abstain from eating meat is having fish Fridays every once in a while on the quilt--as far as eating it? Well, I don't eat fish, at least not the normal fish--tuna from a can, yes; crab meat, shrimp, crawfish, yes; salmon--only if I don't know that's what it is!

ANYWAYS.....
OK I'm hooked into BLOGGING again! Gee what a surprise for a jabbermouth like me. Whether anyone reads it or not, at least I've finally got somewhere to talk and talk and it doesn't matter!

The picture is two fold. First of all, this is the picture of my calendar quilt (up through today!). I KNOW, not the best picture. But it at least gives me a taste of what it will look like! I also know that there are 4 extra squares in it--I do know that today is only the 12th! But to make it look more like a "real calendar" I wanted to start it out looking like a calendar! And the first 4 days of that week were in December 2008. Yes, I know that's not part of this month. If I ever get the whole thing finished, it will hopefully make more sense.
Blue Mondays

"Rainy days and Mondays always get me down...."
Ok, so they don't really, but that was the only thing that came to mind about Mondays other than a song I can't remember the lyrics to but went something like "Blue Monday, can it be? Look what you've done to me? Anyone out in cyber land remember the words to this or if I am even close to the words?
It also shows BLUE!! for BLUE Mondays. I found this through another blog and ended up going to Sally's blog and signed in for BLUE MONDAYS!!

There are 7 of the squares in the calendar quilt there that are primarily BLUE.
The BLUE of the TurboTax (dun, dun, dun) that we will need to be doing as soon as we get all the forms in from everywhere that we need. The sooner the better!!!!
Thought I'd show off a bit of the house as well that has blue in it! Although since I keep losing my internet connection tonight, I might have to wait until next week to add the pics of the house! But at least I got my blue quilt squares in for today's Blue Monday!

I MUST Have Lost My Mind!!

2009-01-11T20:27:00.003-06:00

I really and truly think I've lost my mind. I keep saying I don't have time to do what I need to do now--in all actuality I just don't make time for what I need to do. But I have committed myself to joining 3 different groups of quilters complete quilts! I must be crazy.

The first one I committed to sounded easy enough--the Make-It-Up-as-You-Go-Along Quilt with full instructions from Kim and the You Can Make This blog! I figure if I can do what she tells us to do for each step, then I can do that quilt easy enough.
The second one sounded just as easy--although I'm finding that to be a little more involved (or maybe I'm making it that way) than I originally thought. A calendar quilt. Hmmm, how hard could it be to sew one square or strip to another each day? One square or strip for each day of the year. Simple right? Unless you start having ideas like I did of machine embroidering important dates and events onto the different squares signifying the date! Well we'll see if I get past the section a day before we worry about adding stuff to it!
And third, I agreed to sew 9 squares (a design of my choosing, so it can be EASY) all in the same color pallette of light blues to be swapped to get a total of nine squares (one in each of 9 colors (or shades if you will) in the rainbow. Sounded cool, sounded easy.

Now, here I sit wondering if I've lost my mind. Yet at the same time, I have already (virtually) met some wonderful people by checking out others blogs that are doing the same quilts as I am and by signing up for the quilting adventures. Yes, I will call it an adventure. I've never taken on anything like this before, so we will see where it leads! I should be cutting out my calendar units (or at least choosing what fabrics I want to use) for the calendar quilt. If I get that decided this evening, I'll come back with pictures before calling it a night. If not, I'll have to wait until tomorrow to do that!

Step 2: Done!

2009-01-10T15:20:00.004-06:00

OK, I'm now back even with where I'm supposed to be with the Make It Up as You Go Quilt with the blog from YCMT. I've cut, marked, sewn, cut and now just have to iron the squares that are no longer 4" squares. That is one thing that I've never understood about quilting. How can you call it a 4" square if it isn't 4 inches? Maybe that's why I've never done very well at quilting! I left half the squares unsewn (as I had cut twice as many as necessary) just in case we have to cut squares and do something else with them later! If we don't, I can always come back and sew them. Anyway, here's what I've done so far!

This is the stack of extra squares that I’d cut. I will come back to them later.

4 inch square is no longer Am I the only one wondering why the 4” square is called that when it is no longer 4”?

One of the many squares I cut, stitched, and then cut again for this quilt—with the seams finger pressed open to see what it would

look like.

Here are all of my squares cut after they were stitched on either side of the marked line.

Step One: Done

2009-01-10T12:25:00.003-06:00

OK so I'm a little late with getting step one finished. But I have done it! I have managed to not only add all the folks blogs to follow as they journey through with their quilts, but I have finally managed to get my own quilt squares cut out.

Hmmmm Kim from YCMT said to cut 64 sqares (32 light and 32 dark) right? Well, I guess as usual I went overboard--not knowing when to stop cutting! OOPS! I have 66 light and 66 dark squares cut for a total of 132 total squares! Maybe, as I told Sonja earlier, I will have to do 2 different Make-it-as-I-go-quilts--one in each set of light/dark squares to make up the 64 squares she was asking for. Only thing is, when will I ever get step 2 done on all of them? Later I guess--as I still have the housework to attend to (the housework that gets left behind because of everything else I find to do instead), and I do have things to do for school that I need to at least look at (well, maybe I'll get to that later, too). But I will at least put in a picture here of the fabrics that I found stuffed in my fabric closet that I'd bought sometime for something long forgotten! But these fabrics whether mismatched or not, seem to go together quite well. Wonder what I bought them for in the first place? Probably to make purses out of. No matter, there's plenty left for the purses as well as these squares I cut!

Late as Usual for EVERYTHING!

2009-01-10T08:37:00.002-06:00

The hurrier I go the behinder I get! That's what Momma used to say when she was running late for something--especially if one thing caused her to be late for something else. It seems my life is more like the old Clairol hair color commercials--for those of you 40 and under, you won't remember this--you tell 2 friends and they tell 2 friends and so on and so on! If I'm feeling like I'm running behind on one thing, it sets me back on 2 more things, then that sets me me back on 4 more things, etc.

So here I sit, days after I said "I'm in" for the “I’m-Making-This-Up-As-I-Go-Along” Quilt! from the You Can Make This Blog (http://ycmt.wordpress.com/) and I'm still sitting here with NO squares cut out, NO squares joined, and have spent the morning going through adding blogs to this one to watch to see what progress others are making on their quilts. Only problem is, some of the blogs have been so interesting to read, and they have links to such cool places I have done nothing but surf blogs!!! Not very good for me as far as getting things done.

I have come across a few more websites and blogs along the way that I want to keep tabs on, if for no other reason than I have gotten a couple of good ideas from them. Do I remember what they are? Well honestly? NO. I guess I need to get my "book of lists" (as Kim from Embroodles would call it) out and start noting what these good ideas are. But there was one thing that I saw on one of the blogs that I really thought was kind of cool. It was a list of things (I guess I could call it the Bucket List) that you print in bold the things you have done in your life. I was amazed at how many of the list I had done in my life. So that is one thing I think I'll add to this blog this morning and see if any others pick up on it as well. It would be interesting to see how many of us have done what.
'Cause you realy want to know......
I thought this looked like fun!
Let me know if you do this on your BLOG, so I can see how exciting your life is compared to mine.
Just bold face the items that you HAVE done, and leave the rest normal….
1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band (sang with one, does that count?)
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world (both)
8. Climbed a mountain.
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29 Seen a total eclipse (both sun and moon eclipse)
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33 Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language (does sign language count?)
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person (walked up to the top before they closed it)
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41 Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal in a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45 Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris just didn't get to go to the top, ran out of time before our train left!
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business (does Etsy count?)
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60 Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Gotten flowers for no reason
64 Donated blood, platelets, or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66 Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67 Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt (helped my grandmother, started one for daughter, never finished it)
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79 Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book (my kids say I should--Mom's Recipes!)
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a lawsuit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee