Best Laid Plans

Ever heard the phrase best laid plans can go astray?

That is certainly what happened to me this weekend. 

 Thursday, Thanksgiving went off without a hitch. 

 Made dinner and all was well.  

Then I went to bed. 

 I woke up around 3am with a stomach ache, you know the one.  

Where you know you ate too much and now you are paying for it right?  

So I ate some Tums, and drank some water and tried to go back to sleep.  

It soon became clear to me that was not going to happen. 

 I just felt worse and worse.

 I took 3 hot showers, got out the heating pad to no avail. 

 I was super nauseated and won't go into more detail about THAT! 

We were supposed to go to Grand Rapids to see my dad and sister 

but it was clear that was not happening either. 

I finally got up and moped around for awhile before deciding to call the doctor. 

 The on call doctor told me I had to go to the ER. 

 told hubby I really felt like I needed to go and we were there by 11am.  

I was whisked off for an ultrasound and then another test that involved radioactive dye and morphine

 and was told that I had gallstones blocking my bile duct that had inflamed my gall bladder

 and that it would have to be removed right now! 

 I went in to surgery at around 7:30pm Friday night and they operated on me and took out my gall bladder!  They did it laproscopically so only 4 holes!!!  

OUCHIE. 

It doesn't sound like much but I am really sore now. 

 When I got to my room my son and hubby were there and they had written on the white board.

JIC you can't read it it says "goals for discharge" 

Learn how to cook Thanksgiving dinner that doesn't kill me

as well as Anticipated date

Sam and Dean (the men from Supernatural)

HAHA gotta love my boys, they knew how to make me laugh!

So I spent the night in the hospital. 

 That was fun! 

I finally got to eat something on Sat morning. 

 Hospital breakfast and boy was I happy to have that, even though I couldn't eat much.

I went home Saturday morning but was out of it most of the day due to the medication they had me on.

I don't like how I feel on that so I only took Motrin for the night and all day today. 

 I'm still pretty sore and my belly is really tender but I feel more like myself. 

Hubby went off to DD1's farm to work on the chicken coop today and

I got to just hang out with the cats all day. 

I paid the bills and got my dad and sister's bills done too. 

 Then look what else I managed to do this afternoon.

I got all my squares cut for the Tula Pink swap.  

Plus Judith's and Cilvee's too!

Most of the day though I hung out with one of these guys.  

Doing just what she is doing, being lazy!

  

Anyway, that's what happened around my house over the Thanksgiving break.

I hope yours was somewhat less eventful!

~XOP~

Tula Pink Swap

Last week I got some space and time and got all the Tula squares sorted, packaged up and ready to go.  My friends Lisa and Bobbin Robin helped me sort.

Look, here they are all ready to check postage tonight and send out!

To all my international swappers, I will paypal you with how much you owe.  

I think there are a few US that need to paypal as well, but you will be hearing from me if so.  

I will post in the Flickr group when they are all sent.  

At that time I will turn it all over to Tracey!!

Thanks for a great run.  

~XOP~

Tula Pink Swap Begins and A Tula Pink Giveaway!

I am hosting a Tula Pink Swap of 10" squares. 

 I have done this before and we are into round8/9. 

If you are interested please visit the Flickr group right here and sign up!  

Be sure to read all the instructions first though.

The Fat Quarter shop is sponsoring a giveaway of one color way of the New Tula Pink line.

Acacia

The fabric is super gorgeous, as usual.  

I can't wait to get my hands on it.  

Would you like to pick up a FQ bundle of Acacia too? 

 I bet you would!

Comments are now closed for this giveaway!

For the giveaway here is what you have to do:

Go to the Fat Quarter Shop's listing for Acacia which is found here .  

Then come back and tell me which color way you would choose if you won! 

 Leave me one comment containing your color choice and

 a way to contact you if you are selected as the winner.  

If I draw your name and can not get in touch with you I will have to re-draw and

 YOU will be sad to have missed out on the fabulous fabric!!

I will draw the winner on September 20, Friday.

Thanks to the Fat Quarter Shop for providing such beautiful fabric for the giveaway!

Now go show them some love and order some fabric!!!

~XOP~

Sorting and Swapping. Tula Pink Round 3

I have had the pleasure of being the swap mama for not one but three rounds of swapping

 Tula Pink 10" squares. 

 I have finally received all the fabric for round 3 and needed to do the sorting. 

 There were 28 participants so as you can imagine I needed a long table to do the sorting. 

 So I booked a conference room at work and enlisted the help of 2 of my friends. 

 I thought you might get a kick out of seeing the process. 

Such good friends to help me!

A lovely pile of Tula goodness!

Ooooo Nest

All the packages sorted and ready for the next step. 

 I have to get the list and see who I need to Paypal and who wants round 3 to ship with their round 4/5. 

 Yes that's right I said round 4/5. 

 We are already on to a combined round 4 and 5. 

 And guess what? 

 Those crazy folks are getting ready and claiming their fabrics for rounds 6 and 7. 

LOL.  

We have this great woman in the group that has listed all the fabrics by line and 

put each claimed fabric on the list.  

We have not repeated a single fabric in 5 rounds!  

This has been fun but doing 2 rounds at one time and 

overlapping with the previous round has been a little hairy.  

I am hoping to have some time this week to get it all together and sent out. 

 I hope my peeps have confidence in me and will be patient!

What craziness are you up to?  

~XOP~

Tula Pink 10" Fabric Swap (and a giveaway)

I am currently hosting round 4/5 of a Tula Pink 10" square fabric swap.  

We have done 3 previous rounds and are trying not to repeat any fabrics. 

The Flickr group can be found here if you are interested in joining.  

One of our swappers made this cool button if you want to add it to your blog.  

You can copy it from my side bar.  

We have one last spot available.  

Another of our swappers has made a list of each fabric by line and which ones are taken so it makes it easier to figure out what is available to swap. 

 They need some updating though 

so make sure you check with me first before purchasing any fabric!  

You would need 2 yards of 2 different fabrics to play along in this round, all cut into 10" squares.  

If you know anyone that might be interested please spread the word!

In fact, let's do this.  I will have a giveaway, my choice, and if you want a chance to enter you have to re-blog about this swap so we can get our last spot filled!!

So for a chance to win, you need to re-blog this swap, and leave me a comment telling me you re-blogged this and your blog address.

Easy right?

Now get out there and blog people!!!

~XOP~

A Little Tula Pink Anyone?

I am hosting round 3 of the Tula Pink fabric swap.  

All you need is 2 yards of a TP fabric not used in rounds 1 & 2, cut into 10" squares 

and mailed off to me. 

 In return you will receive 28 different 10" squares back! 

Have I peaked your interest? 

 Go here to sign up!  

There are 8 spots still open.  

Deadline to ship is March 11th.  

Here is what we had from round 1

And here is what we had from round 2

As you can see we got some pretty sweet fabrics!  

Round 3 promises to be just a fab!  

You know you want to join us.  

Just hop over to Flickr and sign up here.

I have a really good friend that has been bitten by the TP bug and look at her additions to her stash

Those 2 center shelves are all TP and then there are 2 BOLTS sitting on the floor.

See that coin quilt to the right?  

It's made out of all TP fabrics!!!  

She is going to use the ivory turtle bay fabric from the Prince Charming line 

for the sashing between the rows of coins.  

Really I'm just a little envious of her amazing stash of TP fabrics!  

I already have an idea of how I am going to use my 10" squares but I'll save that for another post!  

Just a little heads up that there will be a fun little post tomorrow and

 you will get to see something I finished recently but could not share until tomorrow. 

 I hope you will come back and visit!

Until then, go sign up for the swap already, OK?

~XOP~

Tula Pink Swap Round 2

Some of you may know that I hosted a swap recently.  

Everyone had to choose a Tula Pink fabric.  

There were 28 people playing along. 

 Everyone bought 2 yards of a TP fabric and cut it into 28 ten inch squares and sent them to me. 

 I sorted them (with the help of Pauline and Stacey) into 28 piles of 28 different fabrics

 and sent them back in the SASE they sent me with their fabric.

  

Mostly it was a lot of fun.  

We did have one person that was sending 5 peoples worth of squares and she sent them a month late.  It all worked out in the end.  

Here is what we ended up with:

(photo used with permission from Carbonated Creations)

So some were asking if there would be a round 2. 

 I wasn't going to do it and then Salt Water came out. 

 How could I resist? 

 Resistance was futile!  

Hence, round 2 was born.  

According to TP, this is the closest we are going to get to a Neptune reprint. 

 The colors are the same as in the Neptune line!!

If you are interested, all the info can be found here.  

Specifically you need to go to the discussion thread that says "sign up here" and enter your info on the list in the post.  

So far we have 13 signed up so we have a little room if you are interested!  

If you have questions, please email me. 

mamaspark@gmail.com

 

 International friends are welcome, we will Pay Pal invoice you for the shipping. 

 One smart, international woman ordered her fabric from an online vendor and

 had it shipped to me and I cut it up for her.  

She ordered a smidge more for me which was very generous!  

That way she only paid postage one way.  

Brilliant!

So if you love Tula Pink fabrics like we all do then sign up!  

We are playing the no duplicates from round one though 

so if you want to play along be sure to check out the photos from the first round and the list. 

 All photos in the group to the left of this photo are for round 2.  

Again, if you are unsure you can ask me.

C'mon, you know you want to play along!

~XOP~