My Birthday

 I had another birthday on Sunday.
  I really don't like my birthday very much. 

 It's often disappointing for me. 

 I don't know why I struggle so much with this one day, but it never goes how I would like it to. 

 This year was no exception. 

 I got up around 5:30 and fell getting out of bed. 

 I think I may have blacked out for a brief second. 

 I hit my face on the edge of the bed frame. 

 I gashed my shin and near my eye. 

 I decided that I should go to the Urgent Care to see if I needed stitches.  

Of course I needed stitches! 

 I got 6 in my chin and 8 near my eye. 

 I am so thankful it was not worse. 

 I went to the doctor for a check up today. 

 My BP has been extremely low and I was worried that might have been what happened.

  Getting up too quickly.  

Stay tuned.

The inside of my lip was really bruised and swollen. 

That was the worst part!

Chris said it was my "Anti-birthday" and that we would celebrate later.

We shall see...

~XOP~

Today Is My Birthday!

Today I celebrate a milestone birthday.  

I turn 60 today. 

 I have a lot of mixed emotions going into my 60's. 

 More than half of my life is lived. 

 I feel blessed to be fairly healthy, to be continuing my weight loss journey and 

to have my healthy husband by my side.  

We are looking forward to my retirement next year.  

I am excited for the traveling we will be doing in the RV. 

 It is scary to think about potentially selling our first and only home to go on the road though.  

My family kept asking me what I wanted for my birthday and there really was nothing.  

I would love to go visit Ireland but not this year. 

(wedding and all upcoming).  

So I was struggling.  

Then, Bernina came out with a special Tula Pink edition 770 sewing machine.  

I was so smitten.  

Until I saw the price tag. 

 Nevertheless, I said "THAT" and sent the link.  

Chuckling the entire time.

On Sunday my husband and 2 of my 3 kids went out for dinner to celebrate my birthday. 

 At the end of dinner he asked me to close my eyes.  

And made me wait and wait, haha. 

 He put this pink pouch in my hand

I opened it up and this card was inside.

He went here and ordered one for me!!!

Ok, so funny story about how I was not totally surprised inserted here.  

I asked and did NOT, in a million years, think this would happen 

(Did I mention they are EXPENSIVE?).  

After I said I wanted the machine he went to the quilt shop and 

texted me that he had found a used 880 for $1300. 

 I was disappointed but actually said that I didn't need a bigger machine and if I was going to upgrade it would only be for the TP machine.  

It was kind of a bratty thing to say though as he was offering me a great price on that machine.  

So after careful consideration I told him I wanted to go to the quilt shop and check it out.  Meanwhile...

I pay the bills at my house, so the week before the first of the month I usually check the credit cards etc to see where we are at and make sure they are ok, no one has charged on them.  

Then on a day or 2 before the 1st, I go back in and pay everything that isn't on autopay. 

 His credit card was one of those I checked and say what???  

His bill had an additional $500 on it that I was not expecting. 

 I saw that it was to the quilt shop.  

So of course I put 2 and 2 together and assumed he bought the 880 for me and 

just gave them a deposit until he could take me there.

Come Tuesday we went to the quilt shop and come to find out 

that price was for the TABLE not the machine. 

 Ohhhhhhh that makes so much more sense, but then what did he spend that money on??  

A gift certificate??  

I started asking about the 880 and the 770 just to gather information.  

Then I asked about the TP machine like, what did it come with and how is it different etc.  

One of the owners kept telling me how much I would like a 770, 

(which I thought was odd, but I am friendly with him and his wife so just thought he was being helpful, since he services my 170).  

Then I asked when they had to be ordered by.  

Oh, last week, more disappointment.  

How much is the deposit and did you order extra.  

Yes they ordered extra and they would have to wait until all pre-orders were filled.  

The deposit was, you guessed it, $500!  

THEN and only then did the lightbulb go on.  

HAHA, it still could have been something else but I didn't think so.  

I dared to hope.

So when he handed me the pouch and I opened it I was not completely surprised.  

I was, however, elated and a little breathless to think that he loves me enough to do that for me. 

He went there and had to tell them all about a machine he had no idea what he was actually talking about and then get them to order it for him.  

He is just the BEST and I am so lucky to have such an amazing partner to go through my life with.

I am feeling extremely blessed, to have a wonderful family, my health and another year (I hope) 

on this Earth.  

(and soon a beautiful new powerhouse on which to create!!)

I realize this is long and wordy, but I wanted a record of this entire day!

Life is GOOD!

~XOP~

Life Happens

I apologize for not writing more, but I am trying to do more rather than be online more.  

My sister turned 50 last Saturday so we drove to her, Friday after work,  (~ 2.5 hours away) 

and took her and her boyfriend out for a nice dinner.  

We got her a gift cert to her favorite place to eat (one she and her BF can walk to) 

and a got her a cake.  

It's funny, but she was the most tickled with the cake!  LOL, who knew?  

Happy Birthday old lady! 

(I told her we had to take a photo or it didn't happen).

I was recently at a JAF that had a compilation of 100 Blocks from the magazines, 100 Quilt Blocks.

Look what I found while browsing.

It's so fun to find these things out in the wild!  

~XOP~

How is My Baby Girl 30 Already??

Thirty years ago, at 7:47am my second daughter was born.  

She was in a rush to get here (10 days early) but then changed her min and had to be helped along.  Stubborn even then she decided that she wanted to be born on 8-9-88 

even though I was in labor on 8-8-88.  

She always knew her own mind and she still does.  

Happy 30th to my brilliant, beautiful, kind, crazy, fish loving, amazing daughter! 

 I can't even imagine my life without you in it!!!  I can't wait to celebrate 30 more years with you!

I hope you have the BEST 30th birthday and an amazing decade.

 The thirties are a time of lots of changes, but all positive.  

I love you so very much and am so glad you decided to be ours!

Love,

~MOM~

Happy Birthday

Every time I say that I always think of Frosty the snowman saying that!

Yes, today is my birthday!!

MANY trips around the sun.

I promised that I would share the spoils of my trip with you and so I shall, right now.

I will post these in the order I purchased them.

That way you get a feel for what each shop had to offer that I liked.

2nd Street Quilts

Already have plans for that xo fabric.

A Little Quilt Shop

This graded fabric will make awesome binding.  I have already cut into that red and white fabric.

I will show you that tomorrow.

Rockin Bobbins

How could I resist that sea glass fabric?  Also, how adorable is that humming bird needle threader?

I saw a humming bird this past weekend at my apple tree!  

I think I need to investigate putting out a feeder.

Mabelena

Most of this is going into the RV quilt.  I fell in love with that Christmas fabric to.  Great colors

Sew Crazy

Found this stack of B & C fabric.  Also those two colorful ones might go into the RV quilt.  

The Charlie Brown and the cleaners are gifts.

Stitchin in the Barn

The top 2 prints were on sale.  The bottom 4 will potentially go into the RV quilt.  

I thought that green would be good for the trees and the word print is abbreviations for all the states!

The Pin Cushion

Again, mostly for the RV quilt but the sciency words are for me and some extra for a couple of my quilty friends!

Backstreet Quilt Shop

I found some adorable cat embroidery projects. 

There was also a pretty nice Love MI home block too.  

I'm thinking I can make a pillow or something for DD2. 

 Then there was that adorable light up lady bug needle threader.  Might need a few more of those!

So there you have it.  

All the great stuff I got while on my birthday adventure a few days ago with my amazing hubby!

I am heading to a retreat this weekend with Crazy Quilt Girl and my SIL.

I plan on working on my son's Detroit sports quilt and my hubby's fishing quilt.

Not really things I usually enjoy working on but I sure do love those two!

Don't forget WIPs With Friends tomorrow too!

Let's see if we can get 15 links and maybe there will be a little giveaway!!

~XOP~

The Traveling Quilter

A few years ago for my birthday my husband planned and executed a travel for me.  

We went out for breakfast at a place he found.  

Then we went to many quilt shops he mapped out for me to visit.  

He packed a picnic lunch and found a local park and we had lunch at a park in a field of wild flowers.

I mentioned recently that this was one of my all time favorite birthdays. So guess what?  

He planned another trip and we went last week on Friday 

(my birthday is actually tomorrow, though).  

Feel like taking a trip with us?  

I will show all the shops we visited with links.  

This trip we traveled from Canton up to the tippy tip of the thumb.  

Our day culminated in dinner in Port Austin.

Ready?  

Grab a cuppa and let's travel!

 First stop is 2nd Street Quilts in Rochester MI.  

This is an existing shop that changed owners.  

I met the new owners and they were very nice. 

 They are still stocking but I like what I see there already!

  Definitely worth a visit!

Next up is a little shop called A Little Quilt Shop in Waterford, MI.  

Loved the building this was housed in.  

The shop is small but they had some interesting things.  

The business began as a hobby but you can see that she is making it into a nice shop.

 Next up was a place called Rockin Bobbins in Hartland Township.  

Loved the name.  

This one is a little bit tricky to find!

 They had a nice selection of wide backs and a gigantic long arm frame.  

Lots of solids and my husband got a husband present!

I loved this shop!  Mabelena in Ortonville, MI.  This shop had a great selection of fabrics!

I probably spent the most at this shop but in my defense I was buying things to make a quilt for the new RV and they had the line I had already begun using.  

This makes it so nice for me to be able to fill in what I needed!

Stopped at Sew Crazy Quilt Shop in Lapeer.  

Too bad I had not discovered her shop when I was working on the Hallowedding quilt!  

She had a lot of very cool Halloween fabrics.  

Nice, brightly lit, clean shop.

 The next shop was in Imlay City and called Stitchin' at the Barn. 

Bernina dealer.  

Lots of current fabrics at a reasonable price 

(all was $9.99 and sale was $5.99).  

This next stop was at a shop called The Pincushion and it was located in Imlay City too.

To be honest they had me at BIG ORANGE CAT in the window!  LOL.

This shop had an eclectic mix of modern and traditional. Lots of panels but some great finds here too.

We tried to stop at Sisters In Quilting in Marlette but they were closed. = (

We were told that this is a great shop too, so we were sad to miss it.

We motored on to Backstreet Quilt Shop in Bad Axe as our final stop.  

This was a very nice shop and had a lot of wool!  

That was a fun surprise! 

 We were there close to closing but the lady working there was so nice to us.

We continued on to Port Austin for our dinner.  

We at at a place called the Bank (it used to be a bank).  

We had some good food and wine and the atmosphere was so nice.  

We stopped for ice cream on the way home (well, hubby had some).  

We followed along the coast of Lake Huron on the way home. 

 It was a great day and a fantastic way to spend the celebration of my birthday! 

 Since this is so long I will post the purchases tomorrow.  

~XOP~