Guess What I Can Do?

Well, I am so very excited about the changes going on in my life at the moment! I have been wanting to lose weight and now I am making the changes to make it happen. My DD1 and I joined Weight Watchers on Monday. My friend, PTM, joined a gym and did a weight loss challenge and now she has convinced me to do the same. So I went with her last night and I am going to do the challenge with her again. She was the winner and lost over 25 pounds!! She looks fantastic. My hero!! So with the extra time I am off from the CL group this month I will be living at the gym. Wish me luck!

Last night after the gym PTM and I went back to her house and she showed me how to make the no exposed seam pillowcases. I am so excited about that! Here are my first 2. Notice how I forgot to pay attention to the fact that the fabric is directional!! What a dummy I am sometimes. Oh well, they are going to be donated so it is alright. I cut out 15 other ones and will get busy sewing them tonight or Friday night.

In addition, PTM is helping her mum move from a big house to a smaller one in Canada. Her mum had LOTS of these "Crown" canning jars. Many of them have the dates stamped on the bottoms and are from the 30s and 40s. She gave me 2 of them and interestingly, they have glass tops with metal screw rings. Some of the glass tops have the crown on them and some had rings. I took a big one (the one on the right) to put spools of thread in. Too cool, thanks PTM!!

Now I thought I would share a blog I just found that I LOVE!! It is Kerri and the name of the blog is Lovely Little Handmades. She has a wonderful blog and a fabulous ETSY shop Called Sew Deerly Loved. Please go and check her out and tell her you came from my blog.

Well I have to run so have a great day!

Laxy enjoying a bowl of snow

Here are the videos of our dumb dog, Laxy. Let me know what you think!



And this one is Jack trying to get in on that delicious snow bowl!

Oh relaxing Sunday!

That's right, I said RELAXING, and I am trying my best to make that happen. How do so many other things keep creeping into this day? I got up and DH made his usual Sunday breakfast of eggs, some kind of meat and his amazing hashbrowns (from scratch). I haven't ever shown those to you have I? Well, next Sunday I will take some pictures, I promise! So that was late, because we slept in until 9 and then we both got on our computers. Hey, my farm in Farmville isn't going to farm itself now is it? So I took care of my farm and did the dishes, and cleaned up from breakfast and got in some laundry. Now I can relax, right? NO, not just yet.

I got my sewing machine back to it's rightful place after the holidays, had DH adjust it so it sits flush in my cabinet (that only took me 5 years to accomplish) and then called PTM. Keep her in your prayers, she is struggling with moving her mom into a smaller place and downsizing all the "stuff" parents accumulate (and probably us too when we are our parents age!). It is difficult to do this from here when they are in Canada, eh? Anyway, we don't have quilting on Wed so I am going over to see her on Wed and we will make some pillowcases for charity. She is going to teach me the "no seam" method. This necessitates some fabric choices and washing. She told me I had to wash everything I want to use. So back to the basement to sort and wash. UGH, then dry and iron. What was I thinking??

Relax now? NO, not yet. Go change loads of laundry and then it is time to list my red coin quilt on ETSY. It takes more time than you think to get that done too. First pictures, then Photoshop, then create the listing. DONE, now relax, NO not yet. Wait, maybe it is...

Time to blog. OK so now you are up to speed with where I am in my day today. Blogging almost done. Not a chore though, this is fun. Would you like to see some pictures of the quilt? OK here goes.
I showed this before but these were cropped in Photoshop.


Here is a close up of the coins and that pinwheel? My friend, Yuki, carved a stone stamp form and this is how the stamp comes out. My name is in Japanese in the lower right corner of the stamp. I should have inked it a little more but oh well. I have decided to use this on the quilts I sell that have a light back. I bought some custom made tape for dark backgrounds. Keep reading to see it.


LTW's wonderful quilting. I love these birds and berries!



This is the tape I bought from Litta Lotta. I should have made the cat a little darker and will correct that for the next time. She does great work if you are in the market for labels for your quilts. I wanted something that said it came from me without a huge homemade label. It will be a loop sewn into the binding, like Red Pepper Quilts has done. What do you think?

Oh, I forgot to show you this. Yesterday after my hours of errands, I had to bring the church bulletin board home and update it. This is what I came up with. It needs some photos of the group and our antics but those are on my work computer so I will need to send some of them to the store for printing and then add them to the board. I think it came out quite well. I'm not nearly as good with paper. I had that quilted wrapping paper and that was all I had left of it so I thought it would be great on the board. I need to glue the edge down but I was pretty pleased with the outcome.


I have been working on my embroidery and doing some of the flower basket blocks I had begun. I will have to take some pictures later. At night the fam has been watching season one and two of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and I have been working on those then. Anyhoo. I guess that's enough for now, right?

Oh, one last thing. We have found out that our dumb dog LOVES to eat snow. Last night we took some video of her eating snow in a bowl we brought in the house. I am going to post that too. Make sure you get a chance to watch it. The second one finds Jack trying to hone in on the action only to be denyed. Funny stuff.

Ok, laundry is calling, then relaxing. Yep, I mean it, I'm really going to do it cuz work begins tomorrow.

Great way to begin the new year!

I had one more day off today before I had to go back to work. DD2 has a ganglion cyst and today was the day to go in and have the dr try to drain it. It was BIG, like the size of a ping pong ball! It was an interesting experience although I doubt if that will fix it. I think she will probably have to have surgery but since she has to write for college she will have to do it after graduation this spring. Well, enough with the gory details. (Unless you are really into gross, then go to You Tube and look for zit popping and you will see more than you ever wanted to, kind of like a train wreck!!)
Here is what it looked like at Thanksgiving. The doctor rated it a 7 out of 10 with 10 being the biggest! I think I would agree. Our turkey had a weird bump just like the cyst so we thought it would be funny to take a comparison shot. Weird sense of humor, that's me! BTW this is a 25 pound turkey, just for scale.



Well earlier today this was the scene I watched as I was on the computer.


Then after we got home from the dr and DD had to pack up her car and go back to school this is what we found on her stuff. Just making sure there was the proper amount of cat fun on each and every article of clothing before they go back to a catless home!

How incredibly considerate, don't you think??

Really, I just wanted some pics with my words and since I am still recovering from Christmas these will have to do. I do have the dragon lonestar back from LTW and it is gorgeous! Now I will hand it off to PTM for binding. Her binding is so amazing, better than my own!! Thanks gals!! I will show it to you once I can spread it out on the floor and get some good shots. I need to take some pics of the little red quilt too for ETSY. Just ran out of time. After the dr and chinese for lunch, we went to Sam's club and Gordon foods then back here and loaded her into the car, with her fish and her rats. I will miss those little guys! Then laundry and now time on the computer before the new Gossip Girl and Secret Life.

How are you spending your evening?

A New Year

It is officially 2010. I look forward to what January brings each new year. It is a time for us to take stock of our lives and see what we have done, successfully or otherwise and to make the course corrections each of us needs to make. I have been reading a lot of your blogs of late and there are lots of inspiration out there but we all have to do it in a manner consistent with who we are...am I right? If you are only interested in quilty things you may want to just skip this post because it is about me as a person.

I usually write a Christmas letter where I recap all the things the family has done and my part in this letter is usually confined to my quilting because that is such a big part of my life. I need to look at how big that is and if I am shortchanging the family. Well, here goes for what has happened this year and what I hope to have happen in the upcoming one.

I set out last year to learn EQ and to use my embroidery module, neither of which I accomplished, so they go on the list again for this year.

I managed to make quilts for some of my friends and for their babies, the latest one just recently arriving in France for our French daughter's new son.

That being said, I am now a "Nana" to said French daughter's new son, Andrew. What a blessing!

I have slowly been coming to terms with my middle DD getting ready to graduate from college and take that next BIG leap into becoming the amazing person she was born to be. Not easy!

I have cemented the friendship with my oldest DD. We work together now and that has made us closer. We are also venturing along the weight loss journey together (although she is kicking my butt so far) Good for her!

I have watched my DS continue to mature, slowly, oh so slowly but it is happening. It is difficult and painful to watch how slowly this is happening, but I am taking joy in that it is happening at all!

I celebrated 50 years of living which is a great thing.

I also celebrated 26 years of being married to my best friend, not too shabby.

I learned I can't do it all nor do I want/need to do that anymore.

I succeeded and failed at many things this year, now to sweep that away, wash the slate clean and move on to the new year. Here goes nothing.

What do I want to accomplish in this upcoming year?

1-Continue the weight loss journey with DD1 and exercise more.

2-Work on a more sustainable life style, including more natural foods, growing more of my own food and canning. We have begun this in 2009.

3-Use credit cards less (I have been pretty successful with this now I must help my family to do the same). Work on paying off some of that debt too. Kind of painful to talk about but I need this list.

4-Slow down and appreciate family time more.

5-Begin to clean out the "stuff" that is cluttering up my house and my life. I need to learn to get rid of things I don't use and don't need. Help my DH to do the same. Our basement and garage are in dire need of some rigorous clearing out!

6-I set up and ETSY shop, oh yes I did, and I would like to take some of the "vintage" items I have collected and sell them there along with some of the extra scrap quilts that I don't have homes for. So keep a look out for these. I just listed my first 3 vintage items!

7-I have loads of pattern ideas and some very supportive friends that offered to be pattern testers, so I would like to publish some of my patterns this year.

8-As I said earlier, I *need* to learn how to use my EQ program and also my embroidery module.

9-I have a pretty big stash, I have made an effort to use from it this year and will continue to do so in 2010.

10-I need to work on my UFO's (as do most people) so I will continue to have a list on my sidebar for this. Having the list helps me to focus and work my way through to get them finished.

Mostly, I want to make this year a year of growth as a person and to become a better wife, mother and friend. Organize more and spend less. Laugh more and relax more. To that end I would like to do a little more traveling with my DH and my friends too.

I wish for you all that you have what you need to lead a happy and productive life. To be able to do the things you love to do and to be true to yourselves.

I appreciate each and every one of you. I am overwhelmed by your kindness and your support. I hope each of you knows how very much I think of you and that I want only good things for you all in this new year. God bless and keep you all safe in 2010!
XOXOXO
Pam

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone! I snapped these photos at midnight at my house! We really know how to have some exciting times around here, lol. Laxy and Jack were making nice on the couch and DH and I were watching the ball drop. I hope the new year is as quiet around here as all that.



I forgot to tell you that the copy of Material Obsession 2 that I ordered came in. If you have not seen this book you really need to get your hands on a copy and check it out. There are a couple of quilts in here that I am just dying to try. Really, run right out and get yourself a copy, the book is fabulous!

Awhile ago this pattern was in a magazine and I fell in love with it. I have been looking for the fabrics for awhile and when I was in my LQS (Threads and Treasures) the owner, Kay, told me to choose 3 fabrics from the line and she would order those into her shop. I chose 3 including the stripe and she called me yesterday to tell me that they were in. So I bought some of each of the 3 along with some others to go with those and will supplement from my stash.

As for the whole New Year Resolution thing. I really need to think about this and I will post later today. Have a wonderful new year!

My Neighborhood BOM

Just a quick note to let you all know that I have posted the last 2 blocks in the My Neighborhood BOM. I am going to be writing the directions for the quilt soon and will post those hopefully in the near future! I am planning on leaving them up on my website as free patterns though the end of February so if you need any and haven't downloaded them yet, "What are you waiting for??"

After that I am going to put them as a set in my ETSY shop. Yes, I broke down and made a shop. I have a quilt to photograph and list which I will be doing soon too, I hope!

Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed the Houses and will share what you have made with me so I can see your interpretation of them!

Christmas Day 09

I know I am behind in my posting so here goes. This was what our tree looked like on Christmas morning. Notice the red candle on top of the angel on top of the tree? There are 3 of those candles and 3 of my kids. Each year they try to see who can put theirs up the highest on the tree. This year DD1, the shortest, just gave up and put in in the middle. But DD2 and Ds? Ohhhh they were on like Donkey Kong! Notice that the red one is the "winner" but the green one is a close second. Well, DS figured out that he could put his on the halo of the angel thereby winning the contest!

Here is my incredibly adorable and dorky family in their matching PJs. My MIL and FIL gave everyone pajamas for Christmas. Each family got a matching set and this was ours. I am not in the photo as mine were the only ones in the family that didn't fit! Of course!! I felt kinda left out, but I am going to lose weight and fit into those pj's for next Christmas, you just watch for that, k?

My dad and sister usually spend Christmas day and the next day (DS's birthday) with us. This is actually the day after Christmas and Grandpa was getting ready to go home so I needed a photo with all the kids. He is 83 and you never know how many more Christmases he will be with us. Hopefully MANY!! He is very healthy and active.

This is my goofy sister. All the girls (my 2 daughters, me and my sister) and my DH went to see the 3D movie Avatar together. My sister was getting ready to leave with my dad and began crying so DD1 put the goofy 3D glasses on her so we wouldn't be able to tell. I think they just made her look even goofier, but "whatever". This is now DD's favorite photo! My sister is 9 years younger than me and has Cerebral Palsy. She lives with my dad and for awhile DD1 lived with them. Both my dad and sister are extremely attached to her and this is why my sister was crying (not because I was mean to her or anything, although she did call me mean for taking this photo, but how could I not share this with all of you?? I'm just sayin...) She did swipe at me with a crutch on the way out but I'm OK she is not very fast with her hitting.

As you can see grandpa and DD1 really love each other. I love my dad! He is a wonderful generous man!!


I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas too. I did receive many wonderful gifts from my family too. The girls bought me an external hard drive with 1.5TB of memory for all my photos (DD1 was horrified when I got a new computer at work and had to transfer ALL my photos and there are over 3000 of them) Yes, I download them onto my work computer as a back up to my home computer and because sometimes I post from work. I love my Mac so much more than that PC I use at home! My DS bought me the entire first season of Supernatural,love it! DH bought me a new iron (b/c I have been asking for one) and this one can be used corded or cordless (Orek), He ordered me 2 quilt books that I asked for a foot for my sewing machine that I asked for and a surprise, a quilt rack that he and DS are supposed to build for me. I also ordered a single hole needle plate for my machine. (Bernina had 25% off so it was a good time to do so). I had taken my machine it to have it cleaned and checked over and I just love the guy that does my service. She should purr like a kitten once I get a chance to play again!

We got a lot of DVD's at our house for Christmas too. I have watched the entire first season of Fringe and True Blood, both very good. Now on to Supernatural and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I hope everyone else was able to enjoy family, friends and the time off from work! (As I type this from my work computer!! LOL) I will be meeting up with LTW today to go to Checkers and pick up an order. I will share more about that tomorrow. I am also going to get to see her farm today, but sadly you will all have to wait to see it as I left my camera at home! Maybe I can convince her to use her camera and send me some pictures, we will see. I guess you will just need to check back now won't you??

Frankenmuth and Christmas Prep

Last Sunday my whole family decided to go to Birch Run (an outlet mall) and then to Frankenmuth (a Bavarian town). We took DD's BF with us so the whole drive time there was about 2 hours. We shopped a little bit and strangely enough ran into DH's sister and her family. Even more odd is that this niece and nephew are the ones my kids like the most! We told them we were planning on going to Frankenmuth so we decided to meet up at Zehnders (they are known for their famous family style chicken dinners.




As you can see they were less than thrilled to have their photo taken but they tolerated it for you guys. It was kinda bright so some of them had their eyes closed. You can see DD's BF next to her, the one with the red hair. He is a really nice guy.

You can see all of us at the dinner table! We had such a good time at dinner we decided we need to meet up with them and do this every year!

Have you guys seen those little plastic animals that sometimes come on your drinks? Well they put them on our ice cream dish and DD decided to put them all around her glass and drink. Silly girl!

Here is my son posing for me. I told him I wanted a pic by the soldier and would pay him a dollar so he went and posed, and I paid him a dollar, LOL.

Everything was lit up for Christmas, so pretty!

Then it was time to head home and we had to drop the BF at his house. His parents asked us to come in and it is the first time our entire family and their entire family have been together. I suspect BF may become a DH in the future so we went in and had a nice hour together and then it was time to go home. BF's family is very nice.

I had to work on Monday but have been making up for that on Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday I finished shopping and then the girls and I went to see Avatar. OMG, I can't even stress enough so OMG again. This movie is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. They did it in 3D and it is amazing. The plot is a little predictable but I really, really enjoyed it. I want to see it at an IMAX theater. If you have a chance GO AND SEE IT!!

Yesterday DD2 and I spend the better part of the day baking cookies and cleaning. Last night an old BF of DD2 came over. He is attending West Point and will graduate this spring is astro physics (yes now I know a rocket scientist IRL!!) He is going to go to flight school to learn how to fly some big ass helicopter after graduation. He and DD dated the summer before their freshman year in HS and are now just good friends. He usually stops by at Christmas when he is home to see us. We really love him, just a great kid. He helped DD decorate the sugar cookies last night and then they went out with some other friends. I should have taken his picture, maybe next time he is over.

So today we go to my SIL and BIL house to celebrate Christmas. It is a 2 hour drive. My dad and sister will come here and stay in a hotel (we don't have an extra room). I usually call him when we get home and he comes over for a little while. I made homemade mac and cheese to bring tonight. When I get home tonight I need to bake my raisin bread and make my breakfast casserole for the am. At least I am all wrapped! I will take some pictures and post probably soon.

Have a Merry Christmas or Happy Holiday and stay safe. Enjoy some family time and eat lots of good food!!

Irish Christmas Giveaway

OK, I have not had time to write of late but dang it I have been swamped! My friend Micki over at Irish Muses is having a wonderful giveaway of some really cool Irish things. She is a sweetheart too so you really need to go and visit her.

I told you I would share what I got for PTM for Christmas after I gave it to her so here ya go. I thought these little kitty faces were so adorable! And PTM is totally addicted to 30's fabrics.

I also gave her some of these. I believe they are from Darlene Zimmerman's newest line. Aren't they adorable?

I also gave LTW her present but , very bad me, I do not have a photo of what I gave her. I did show you some Kaffe Fassett fabrics in a post about NYC. Well I also went to the LQS and got a couple more of those fabrics. I made FQ's out of all my prints and shared half with LTW!! I think she liked them. She is saving up some of the pinks and purples to make a pattern by Don't Look Now. Me too. If anyone has any KF scraps you would like to donate to the cause we would take any color and type. I had none in my stash so will need to do a little collecting before actually getting started. I just love her stuff!

I am trying to fight off a cold and my head is all congested so I took a Benedryl and now I am getting sleepy. We are going to Frankenmuth tomorrow so will try to write when we return. Headed off to bed, can barely keep my eyes open...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz........

Coin Quilt for ETSY

I got my coin quilt back from LTW and I am so happy with how it came out. I had her do birds and berries overall and I really like how it looks. Here is the front:


And here is the back:


Here is the close up of the quilting:


This entire quilt was made from scraps (mine and LTW's)or fabric I had at home already. I gave it to PTM to do the binding on in the red fabric. I am planning on putting it up for sale on ETSY once I get it back from PTM. If you know anyone that might be interested please steer them my way!

My Travels to Shipshewana

So DH and I went to Shipshewana, Indiana on Monday to do some shopping. Why does this make me so happy? Because there are multiple fabric shops there. Lolly's and Yoders Department Store. But...I digress. The start of this story begins on the drive there. We were driving down US 12 when an "Oversized Load" truck went by followed by this:



WTF? you might be asking as was I, when DH tells me that it is a blade for a power generating windmill. HUH?? It is ENORMOUS!!! So we passed a total of 6 of these on our way to Indiana. We stopped at a light in Jonesville and there was one trying to make the turn. DH went around the block for these pics for you guys, just so you can see how BIG they really are, Ready?

That is the length of a city block!!
Trying to make the turn:


Seriously HUGE, can you tell I was enraptured by them??

OK back to Shopshewana. We arrived and had to go to Jo-Jo's for pretzels.

Drooling yet? They are wonderful when warm and with their mustard!

Then to Lolly's. I won't bore you with the pics inside the shop (they are on Flickr if you really want to see them). I bought a little bit of fabric, no really, not very much at all. Why are you all laughing??
I bought this panel to go with a pattern I already had

It is the one in the middle. I got the American Jane one while in Mason and the Hanky one at Yoders.

Remember how I told you I finished up the Peter Rabbit cross stitch blocks? Here is one:

I got fabric to make them into a quilt. More about that after Christmas when I can get them all out and make the design I have in my head. But I bought these for that.

or maybe these which I got at Yoders Department Store,

Although the batiks are for a quilt for DD1 later and the aqua just "cuz".

I bought a few other fabrics for Christmas gifts so I can't show you until tomorrow as we are exchanging tonight. I also bought a shirt for my friend that has horses:

I scored these adorable tea towels at Vintage Home.

They had a lot of cute retro stuff. But I showed a lot of restraint and it was hard!


Then off to Rebecca Harrer's place for some old quilts and Mercury glass ornaments. This one was a beauty. So small.

Even Santa made an appearance.

Then we found a new to us antique shop Vintage Mast and I bought a few things but this was cool, an old cloth children's book. I am thinking I can scan it in, print it on to fabric and make a quilt with it. The pics are so cute!


You get the idea.
Then we went to the bulk food store where I got steel cut oats for .67/lb!! and other great deals and on to Yoder's Meat and Cheese shop where we bought lots of meat and cheese. We love their bacon and their dried beef, YUM. No pics of that though. Lots of walking and lots of together time with my DH. We had a really fun day together!

I have to scoot off to home now and get ready for the CHVQ Christmas Party at PTM's house, so I will write more tomorrow. I still have things to share, not about the trip but important none the less. Have a wonderful evening!!