Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Some Sad News

You all must remember that I left the church ladies quilt group a short while ago right? Last week one of the CL's was put into the hospital with meningitis. There was surgery and we all waited for news. I just found out today that tomorrow they will be taking her off life support. I know she did not want to live that way. They will let nature take its course, so her fate is in God's hands. Please pray for her and for her family as they struggle through this time. I will keep you posted.

Seems kind of silly to mention this but I have not posted my weigh in this week. I stayed exactly the same. Bummer. Hopefully this week will be better.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Old McDonald??

Yep this is what occupied my day on Saturday. My DD1 went to a "bird swap" with some friends. She just happened to ask LTW if there were any critters she might *need* for her new farm. LTW said, well if you happen to find a Pygmy goat or some of those funny looking chickens with pom poms on their heads that might be cool... Famous last words!

Of course DD1 made this her mission at the swap. Which for those of you that might not know what a "bird swap" is this is what DD told me. A bunch of people drive to a field and bring critters they want to sell/trade and the swappin' begins!

Here is my DH feeding the new Pygmy goat in my kitchen. She really is adorable. She had an ear tag that got caught on the cage and ripped it off thus splitting her ear so we had to do some first aid. Neosporin, bandages and duct tape to hold the bandages in place should do nicely.

Chris feeding goat 02
Next came the chickens (Polish chickens to be exact). The females have the "pom poms" on their heads. DD managed to get 2 mated pairs, one in blue (looks like black to me) and one in buff.
female blueFemale buff up close
Here are the roosters. This is after we delivered them to their new home on the farm. They sure are cute! They may even have some little Polish babies!! How adorable is that?

Ckns in new home
My DD *really* wanted a Peacock. Her friend managed to get a spectacular bargain on this beautiful India Blue male that is a year old already and should come into his tail feathers within the year. As I hear it from LTW, they have already made him a pen so he can get up high, which is where they like to be and apparently he is quite loud! Next thing on the list is to get a mate for him, maybe that will keep him quieter? He will also display his feathers more if there is a female around.
Peacock 02
Here is the goat (now named "Sunshine") with her new mom! Sunshine should be bottle fed for the rest of this week and then should be able to eat regular goat food. This was a match made in heaven!
Becky and goat 02
Apparently you need to be careful when cleaning out the cupboards at the farm too, you never know what (or who) will be inside!!
Cupboard cleaning
I was kind of fascinated by this awesome specimen of fungus. Too cool!
Tree fungus
Next time I go to the farm I will get some pictures of the house and the barn. I had my hands full with all the critters, DH and DD.

Sunday was spent cleaning at my house! Messy little buggers! But lots of fun. Hey ,you just never know what is going to happen at my house!!

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Mosen and another "Peek"

This is my cat, Mosen. I don't know how many of you have cats but somehow they always manage to find the sunshine don't they? Isn't he handsome? I thought you might like to know that, officially, I really did lose another 2 pounds this week, bringing the grand total so far to 29.2 pounds!! If you have joined me on this weight loss adventure be sure and tell me how it is going for you too!
Mosen in the sunlight

I have been working on my quilt. I hope to have a pattern available soon. Here is another sneak peek. I love how it is turning out and can't wait to share the top with you! Stay tuned.
Another peek

In addition, you all remember that I left the church's quilt group right? Well one of the CL's was admitted to the hospital yesterday with meningitis. She is on life support. Please, if you have a quick minute, say a prayer for her and her family. I really appreciate it.

Plymouth Tea Party

I wanted to tell about the Tea Party I attended on April 15th. I ended up getting out of work late so only caught the last half hour. It was wonderful! There was a fabulous speaker in the time I was there. He was a black preacher, Mr. Uhl, I believe, and man was he fired up! It was awesome. Here is a crowd shot. And in the second pic you can see Mr Uhl, just through the signs.

Plymouth Tea Party  04 4/15/10Plymouth Tea Party  02 4/15/10

I picked up some forms to become Precinct representatives for myself and my DH. I always say that if you want something to change you need to get involved so this is my BIG first step! Wish us luck!

Did any of you attend any of the Tea parties across the country?

Monday, April 19, 2010

Just a Peek...

That's all you get for now...just a peek.
Scrap quilt blocks

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Weekend Exploits

How come every time I write about my weekend the first word that comes to mind is BUSY?? I left work a little early and DH picked me up and we drove to East Lansing to visit with DD2. I had to bring her a dress for a wedding she and the BF were going to and her dad wanted to change out her head lamp on her car. We ended up visiting with DH's sister and BIL. That was nice as we had not seen them in a long time. Then we went out for dinner. I passed out in the car on the way home (I guess all those mornings getting up early finally caught up with me, along with that wine I had!)

Saturday saw me at the gym early and both classes taken. Lost another 2 pounds (gym scale), YEAH!! I just want to take a minute to tell you all how much your support is helping me! I feel like I can do it and many of you have emailed me to tell me you are working on it too because of me. That is a wonderful feeling. Let's keep spreading the health! It seems like too often women tear down each other rather than build each other up. I'm glad to know I am helping with the building up!! The rest of the day was grocery shopping, laundry and catching up on blogs. You guys have so much good information and great projects and giveaways going on. We are a busy community! I am still working on reading all on my bloglines but will get there.

Today DH was leaving for flight school for the week and I had to drop him off at the airport so there went my morning. BUT...I did manage to work on my next block for the Jelly Roll Quilt-A-Long block and here it is:
JR QAL Block 4
We were supposed to do the outside in "darks" but I saw one that someone else did with the light on the outside and I love how this came out!

I am going to watch the Red Wings in their play off game (we do live in Hockey Town, ya know) and do some cutting. I still have a few blocks to cut down from the water quilt to make the next one I want to make. I am also considering joining the Great Hexagon QAL, are any of you doing that one?? So cute.

I did attend the local Tea Party on Thursday and will tell you more later, I wanted to show this quilt block first. I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday and thanks again for stopping by and especially for all your wonderful support!!

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

PTM's BIG Birthday!!

So I told you that PTM told me her birthday was actually tomorrow but in reality it was April 7th. What do you got for someone that has the things she wants and buys what she wants? The gift of time of course! So here is what I decided to do. I took the day off of work to do this. First we met up at the gym around 7:30 and worked out together. I went home, showered, changed and went to pick her up. The first place we went was the Quilter's Garden quilt shop in Fenton.
Pauline's birthday 001
We spent a lot of time there and had a lot of fun. I will show you my purchases tomorrow. Next stop was The French Laundry for lunch. Here is PTM in front of it.
Pauline's birthday 005
Just a peek inside
Pauline's birthday 004
Here we are eating our lunch and here is our lunch...YUM!! My treat!
Pauline's birthday 002Pauline's birthday 003
Nest stop was the Institute of Art in Flint to see the Gee's Bend quilts.
Pauline's birthday 007
It was an interesting exhibit. Kind of fits right into the whole Modern movement that's going on right now. I have to laugh, as PTM is beginning to really like the more Modern quilts like me!! I think I liked the paintings almost as much as the quilts. What an interesting exhibit!
The next place we were going was Linda's Country Quilts in Davidson.
Pauline's birthday 010
Now for those who wanted to see more of the less of me here ya go. Me and PTM inside of Linda's
Pauline's birthday 011
It was a wonderful day and I had a lot of fun and I hope PTM enjoyed her birthday celebration today too. I will show you my purchases tomorrow, bed now, 5:10 comes WAY too early!!

Give Away

Jaybird quilts is having a wonderful give away so stop on over and enter for a chance to win. Also check out the listing of other giveaways for lots of fun things to win!!

Sunday, April 11, 2010

The Water Quilt

I got up this am and actually had the chance to sleep in! I woke up with DH around 7:30 but did not get my sorry butt up until almost 9am!!L-A-Z-Y!! Once I got up I was productive though. I decided to get to work on the Water Quilt. I worked furiously and managed to get all the borders on. I thought I would get time to work on some other stuff, but that just did not happen. I thought I would share some pics with you all, so you can let me know what you think??
This is the whole top:
Water Quilt 001
I adore the border print. It was difficult to use it. "Secrets of the Reef" by Luana Rubin for Kaufman. LOVE IT!!! I should have bought MORE!!!!!
Water Quilt 003
I had to cut it the "long" way for the top and the bottom so that was kind of scary since it diminished the fabric by that much. I changed the borders from the last one I did and I like this one better. Figuring out how to make the squares come out right was a little tricky but I managed it!
Now this doesn't really show you much different, but you can see the fiesty little grape Hyacinth that has decided to grow in my lawn! Too adorable!
Water Quilt 004
I struggled with what to put on the back. I wanted Mermaids, but DD2 wanted flannel, and I know I do not have any flannel with Mermaids on it. So I told her that this is summer quilt and no flannel. I went to the stash and looked for Mermaids. Mind you I would need 6 yards of Mermaid fabric to make this work. I found the perfect fabric, "but I want to save this to use for applique for grandchildren..." I wined. *sigh* the practical side won out and I sewed it together to use for the back. The waves are sparkly!! I figure some day she can use it in her daughter's room, right?? Tell me this is not adorable, right??
Water Quilt Back
LOVE IT!!
The I decided to cut out the white strips for in between the On a Whim 2 blocks, so that is done. I thought I might be able to get that top done too, LOLOLOL, NOT!!
I leave you with some pics of my *helper* Aiden.
Aiden 001Aiden 002
She is sleeping on the small couch behind my sewing machine. Isn't she so sweet? She often jumps into my lab while I am typing on this lap top and rolls herself onto the keyboard and butts my hand to pet her.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Lest you think me a total slacker, I did laundry and grocery shopping today too. Steak and potato salad are for dinner. Talk to you tomorrow!!

Saturday, April 10, 2010

What do you think?

I had a very interesting day today. I got up early and headed out to the gym. body Vive first followed by the 30 minute ab class. Today they had a guest instructor at the ab class. A HUGE Army guy, and boy was he tough. My abs were killing me after only the first 10 minutes. We were whining like a bunch of girls (oh, wait, I guess that's because we ARE a bunch of girls!!) The scale at the gym tells me that I am down another 1.6 pounds but the official weight is Monday at WW. Anyway, then I raced out of there to get my hair cut and highlighted. I loved my last cut (in November) and the highlight too. Melissa did a fantastic job. She highlighted me in gray! Everyone that sees it thinks it's blonde but it isn't! I am trying to let the gray grow in naturally so I can just get it cut, lots less money and upkeep. Are you curious?? Ok but remember, this is after I got home and was still in my gym clothes with zero makeup, ok, so be kind...

New Hair cut

So for the rest of the day what did I do you ask? I finished the center of the water quilt. I decided on the borders too which I am hoping to do tomorrow and then make the back. I do have a pattern for left over squares, although I will have to cut them down for the pattern. I think I will do that tomorrow too, along with making the binding. On top of that I made some other blocks too. Remember the fabric I won and showed you yesterday? Well, I made that all into some blocks, and I think I will be sashing the blocks with white strips. Just a little simple something, It will be small, but cute. Maybe a baby quilt for someone or something, I just wanted to use up the fabric. Maybe an ETSY quilt? Not sure yet. Anyhoo, here are the blocks so you can see what I ended up doing with them.
On a Whim 2 blocks
I didn't get as much done as I wanted to today but I didn't get home from my big adventures until around 2:30 either. Tomorrow I will need to do some cleaning but LOTS of sewing for me.

I talked to PTM today as she was driving up to Canada and I have a plan to kidnap her on Tuesday. She has been a very naughty girl. She told me her birthday was next week when really it was on Wednesday!! Such a brat! So I am taking the day off from work on Tues and I have a special adventure planned for us. I can't tell you about it because I don't want her to know what I have planned but it should be a fun day. Two can play the "I'm a brat" game you know? I am eagerly awaiting Tuesday!!

Friday, April 09, 2010

Gifts and Give Away Winner

I forgot to tell you the other day that when I got to quilting on Wed one of the women, Diedre had a present for me. She said it was because I was a good leader, and I said, I am not the leader and then she said it was because I am a good person. I'll take that, LOL! Anyway, she had surgery on her foot and can't sew so she knitted me this:

Scarf from Diedre

I am totally in love with this scarf! The color is right up my alley, THANK YOU DIEDRE!! It's beautiful and so are you!!

Then I forgot to tell you that I entered a give away over at Cherry House Quilts (think City Scapes etc). I won some wonderful scraps from Forest Fun 2 and a small pack of bite sized fabrics, a pack of notes by Liberty of London and a nice post card from Cherri with a photo of her new book!!

Cherri House giveaway 01Cherri House giveaway 01

If you get a minute go on over to her blog and tell her Mama Spark says "HI"!!

She has some amazing stuff on her blog. You might like to visit her daughter's blog too, Lizzy House. Good stuff, GREAT people!!

Thursday, April 08, 2010

Water, Water Everywhere

Literally, it has been raining for the last 3 days! BIG thunder boomers, mommy like ! Something about the big BOOM and the sound of the rain pelting falling and the coolness of the air, ahhhh. I love a rainy night! But I digress.

Last night, on the way into the place we gather to quilt, I was not loving a rainy night so much. Picture me carrying my bag full-o-stuff, a big with a towel and iron, my BIG cutting mat, my purse and my sewing machine (I am NOT making 2 trips) in the POURING rain. No more hands to hold an umbrella, of course. Now where did I put my keys to lock my door, BEEP, BEEP BEEP, oh jeepers, car alarm going off, now *where* are those keys? Oh yea, in my pocket, fumble, fumble, ahhh blissful quiet, and now I'm soaked. Oh well, I finally got inside and set all my stuff down. Kind of an appropriate night to work on the water quilt, don't-cha think? Now I must wait for PTM to arrive and help me. She is the BEST helper a girl could have.

So we layed out the water quilt and I began sewing blocks together into rows. PTM, bless her heart, pinned them all together and I sewed. Hey I could get used to this! But seriously, next time it is my turn to pin while she sews, right? Fair is fair after all. So here it is all laid out.

Water quilt beginning

I did manage to get all the blocks sewn into rows and 2 rows sewn together. I will work on sewing all the rows together and then make some border decisions soon. Vampire Diaries and Supernatural are on tonight along with a new episode of Fringe and Deadliest Catch, thank goodness I can DVR some of this TV goodness!!

Let me know what you think of the Water Quilt. We did a little repositioning, didn't want any upside down Honu turtles now did we? No we did not! I have a TON of the 3" squares left over too. I am considering making this quilt b/c I love how this one came out! don't you think it would be beautiful in these fabrics??

One more funny thing to share with you. LTW sent me an email and said she is grateful I am spending time at the gym or she would be afraid I would have too many things for her to work on!! HAHA, does she not realize I don't sleep much? JK, LOL!!! Just trying to blast my way through the UFO's I have on my list for the year before summer!! HAHA at least *some* of them anyway.

Gotta run, hope you are all getting your UFO's worked on too.

Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Weigh in this week

Ok, I was sooo nervous to weigh in at the meeting this week! After Easter food and some adult beverages...*see me sweating* And the scale said:

DOWN by 1.2 pounds!!! Are you kidding me? REALLY??? Oh thank the lord, I promise to be good this week!!!! Already went to the gym at 5:30am for half an hour yesterday, followed by an hour today. Back to the gym in the am tomorrow. I do have to say that I finally broke one milestone and am heading for the next 10 pounds now. I have lost 26.6 according to the WW scale. I still have a ways to go to get to my goal, but am getting closer. I would like to lose another 50 pounds and I will see how that feels. I am hoping I can get there by the end of the year. Seems like so far to go but I am trying to take it one week (or day) at a time.

I hope to have some pictures for the next post. I know they are boring without pictures, but I wanted you to know what the scale had to say!

Sunday, April 04, 2010

Happy Easter and Block Three of the Jelly Roll Quilt-A-Long

It seems like ages since I posted last. I have been getting ready for Easter. First things first. I weighed in on Friday and I was up a little bit (under a pound, but still up). Bummer! Maybe this is the plateau? I sure hope not. I went to the gym every day and followed the WW plan too. Let's just say that eating for Easter was NOT good for me. I am sure the scale at the WW meeting tomorrow will reflect this, LOL. Oh well, I will just drop a point and keep on with the regular plan.

Like I said, I was planning Easter dinner here and was expecting my dad and sister so there was lots of cleaning and some cooking too. I called them on Sat to find out what time they wanted to eat and guess what? They told me they were NOT coming!! Oh really?? You didn't think to tell me sooner? I could have worked on quilts or out in the garden all weekend!! My sister went over to her boyfriend's family's house and my dad went to Old Country Buffet (YUCK, but he likes it). It ended up being just the 5 of us. Not too bad either.

The girls didn't want baskets of candy as we are all on a weight loss quest so I just got a little candy for the boys to have. It was a nice relaxing day and now the house is clean too, so I can do some serious quilting this week. All good, right?

I thought it must be time for the next block in the JRQAL so looked and yep, there it was. I went ahead and made that and now I think I actually beat Annemiek this time!! HAHA this time *I* win!! Here is mine done in Verna.
Verna JR quilt along block 3
Not the best picture but I like how it came out. I really love this line!

I can't remember if I told you but I made another quilt for the veterans. It looks like the first one but it is such an easy pattern and I had so much RWB fabric cut and left over I thought I should make another one. I need to piece the back which I plan to do tonight so I can bring it to LTW tomorrow. I had a TON of the RWB fabric left over so I was talking to the Wed night ladies (those that are also makeing a quilt for the veterans) and I decided to "gift" one of them my leftovers and let them borrow my pattern. They had to add to the RWB fabric, make their quilt and "gift" it to the next person. This is a seriously easy pattern and I had my top made in about 3 hours, borders and all!! Kind of like a round robin, with a twist! HA!! What do you think of that?

Anyway, I hope you all had a blessed Easter, Happy Passover or just a great weekend. Please pray that the scale is kind, somehow to me tomorrow!!