Its Saturday and my laundry is finished. I am thinking that although I am still very sore in places that I might actually survive this fall. I have to tell you that it was one longggggg week at work though. I work with a great bunch of girls. they were all pretty good about making sure that I did not lift anything too heavy. I haven't felt a lot like getting involved in anything right now but am drooling over the lazy girl pattern for the summer tote. it is just large enough that I could make it up to take on the plane with me the next time I go to Spokane. We are supposed to have a new joanns fabrics opening here with in the next month or so" I am debating on whether or not I want to wait or run over to wally world which now carries fabric yessssssssss! when they built it a couple of years ago they didn't put fabric in it as that was when they started removing fabric from most of the wallmart stores. women were flooding the stores with phone calls telling them not to discontinue it. well apparently they finally figured out just how much revenue us women bring in. its sooooooo nice to have a couple of different options available so close by. I used to have to drive to Greenville n.c. to get to the nearest joanns.
I have also been surfing the net which is common practice around here and found the cutest little blog. Its called American pie designs so if you get a chance type that into your search engine and check her out. especially the article she wrote on decopauge. I laughed so hard! It sounds like something my husband would say and do". Well that's about all that is going on today. still waiting for my friendship swap package. went down to the mail today but it wasen't there yet. now that it is the memeorial day weekend I imagine it will be Tuesday or wednsday before it arrives. It sounds like everyone is getting theirs finished and off in the mail before the final date so that's a good thing. o.k you all take care until next time.

Good news! just read my swap partner sunnys blog and she has her package and it is all opened up! she sounds like she likes it. I am sooooo glad. these swaps are so much fun and you always hope that your partner will enjoy what you got them. her addy is http://sunny-quiltingdreams.blogspot.com/  if you would like to see what I got her.
Today was a tough day back to work but I made it so tomorrow should be easier. Love feeding the little ones they just make my day! We have a little set of blonde twins that come through and one of them is just always smiles from one ear to the other.I don't believe I have ever seen her when she isen't smiling. today I was teasing her and she said so seriously that she did not sleep well last nite. she is only seven and I said well how come and she said my eyes just went poof! wide open and wouldn't shut! I guess you had to be there" but take my word for it she is adorable.
I have been trying out a scarf/shaw pattern that Vicky howel has on line and for some odd reason I cannot come up with even stitches on each side of the marker. I have left a comment on her blog so hopefully she will get back to me to let me know if I am doing something wrong or if it is a mistake in the pattern. Its a very simple pattern and I would like to do it. sometimes you need a simple one among the more complex ones. O.k. time for me to hit the showers. you all take care until next time.

trying to recover from work accident yesterday but am fuming mad so it is difficult! I was walking across the floor with a pan of chick fillets in my arms when one of the coworkers had left the grates up ontop of the flood when she was cleaning out the pit and didn't put them back down flush with the floor so naturally I tripped on them and hit the floor hard! those cement  floors have noooo give. anyway everyone came running and I checked to make sure nothing was broken and got up and went back to work. the boss wanted me to go get checked out but I thought if I moved around awhile I would be fine. well by the end of the day my shoulder was killing me so I agreed to go get checked out. for any of you that work for the state of north Carolina at least the school district you know that if you are injured on the job you have to get a drug test automatically every time! now this means you have to pee in a cup! yup no other way to say this folks: welllllllll I am not one to pee on command. sorry that is just not meeeeee. now if they asked my hubby he could fill up a small lake on command but they were not asking him they were asking meeeeee. it took me four hours , seven sixteen ounce glasses of water and a coke to get a sample. they even offered to catherize me can you imagine????? there has to be something wrong with a system that drug tests a state employee every time she has an accident and yet provides state assistance to welfare recipients several of whom I know who are druggies and using state money to keep their habit going. needless to say I was fuming by the time I left there. I told hubby next time if there is a next time" I refuse to go! if I die then he better post it in the paper why I did not go to the doctor! o.k. back to work take care until next time.

Its Saturday and I am actually getting a few things done. I finished my laundry yesterday instead of doing it today like I normally do. and instead I colored my hair. (long over due) I have been extremely lucky all these years and made it to 63 before my hair really started turning grey and then it was alllllllll at once! not nice" Wouldn't it be nice if we could all get pretty white hair or that awesome silver hair? noooooo not meeeeee I get the ugly greyyyyyyy hair. Well its strawberry blond now so I feel much better when I look in the mirror. It always amazes me what hair color does to change the way your eyes look.
Still no post on from my swap partner. maybe later on this weekend. looking forward to hearing whether or not she liked it. I have been laughing to myself as I don't understand anyone waiting to rip into a package. I am soooooooooo bad at that! even my kids know that if they want me to wait they better not send it early. I am like a little kid at Christmas.
Yestarday I managed to get a dresdon block put together. and I am in the process of appliqueing it down.

Have been playing with the lighting on my cameral. this one was taken outside and the next one was taken inside.

By the way have you ever tried to photograph humming birds? It reallyyyyyyy takes patience to wait until those little buggers stand still!

Its quiet here to nite as hubby had to go in for a sleep aptnia test so that leave me and the dogs alone.
Its been a nice day off. we had our teachers luncheon at the church this afternoon and my preacher and my boss got into a joking mood about teasing me. Lordyyyyyyyyy I am going to have to put up with this all tear long. my boss informed me today that the test I agreed to help her take last semester is going to be one that if we do not pass it we will have to take it again and again. funnnnnnnnnnnnn! Now I know why no one volunteered and I was the only one would would agree to go with her. she said the test manual is about three inches thick. we take the test in November. not looking forward to this one!.
Haven't heard from my swap partner so don't know if she received my package today or not. for some reason my email and addys are not loading up right today so I can't get the folder that I put all the swap info inside of. hopefully she has gotten it and liked it . Not sure what the time differenence is for her and I. Well elementary is on so I think I will watch the rest of it before I go to bed. take care until next time.

Its Tuesday and I feel like you know what? Have had a bad sore throat and cough for a week now and it is really getting too me. we managed to get all of the food put away for the cafeteria and going in and out of the freezer all morning probably didn't help any. I got home and landed in my chair and didn't move. Hubby was sweet enough to run into the store and pick up some more throat lozzengers and some cough drops along with some juice bars" did I say he was sweet!
After work I did manage to get my swap partners package in the mail. hear that sunny????? you should have it no later then Thursday so let me know if it arrives safe and sound. O.k normally I would try and have some pics to post but in all honesty I just don't feel up to it so until next time.

It was back to work today" and it seemed to take forever for the time to go by. it was so funny because all of us were looking at the clock. I think when you have been off for most of the summer it is difficult to get back into the routine. tomorrow we will go back as there will be a semi full of food that we will need to put up . then it back on the 26th for the school year.
It poured down rain today but I did manage to get to the post office on the way home from work and got a priority box so that I can mail off my swap partners gifts. I hope she will be happy with what she gets from me.
I have also been playing around with some grandmothers flower garden blocks which are fussy cut. I loveeeeeeee these! Its hard to find material for them because it has to be just the right space apart in order to leave enough material to fold over the hexagon.

I found some fabric that was obviously for a child but I think they are soooooo gosh darn cute! I am thinking it might be a cute baby blanket . I am not crazy about the idea of putting a grandmothers flower garden quilt together the original way but I think each flower would be cute appliqued to a backround block. I also got a new yellow mat which I had needed for some time. the old blue one was still good but it had some glue stains on it that I couldn't remove and it just looked nasty. this one is light and airy and I think it is much easier to see what I am doing with it.

Not much more going on around here at the moment. I am seriously thinking about joining weight watchers. not thrilled about what they charge but if it works that is what counts.

Well its getting to be time for dinner. so I had better stop for now. take care".

Just spent about 45 minutes on pioneer womans blog and it wasen't for her recipes although they are pretty darn good! it was for her photography" she takes amazing shots! If you want to take your photography skills a step further check out her information it will be worth the time. I know that I learned a lot. I would love to take a day and just go out and shoot pictures. nestled up next to the ocean would be the perfect  backdrop. hmmmmm maybe one of these weekends I will have to convince doug to go" if not then maybe a girlfriend.

Well I mailed off my daughters birthday card along with some material for the little ones to make skirts or dresses out of. and I have my swap partners things all ready to mail except for that darn wrapping paper. will check tomorrow when we are in town and see if I can find some. if I am lucky and all goes well I should get it out next week. I also have to start back to work Monday. that means getting up at five a.m. again. would you believe I am still at Spokane time. I can't seem to go to bed before midnite or later. that is all going to have to stop soon. I bough the cutest patten at joanns for making a dress quilt. the dress is hanging on a dressform and they are going to be soooooo cute! I started a couple of them last nite the dresses that is" not the backround squares. will have to cut some out today if I get the time and post soon. take care until next time.

An old friend of mine posted a picture of Logan canyon and it brought back so many memories that I just had to post it here. Have never seen colors like this any place else I have lived.

Have been busy this morning sewing for my friendship partner. just a little something that I hope she will like. I am just about to the point where I need to start boxing things up. one or two more things I need to pick up and that should do it. this has been fun! trying to figure out whether or not I want to actually wrap each thing as they are all different shapes and believeeeeee me I am definitely not the worlds best wrapper (my kids can testify to that) Hubby used to wrap their gifts. I may just go ahead and put them all in the box and send a sheet of paper with it identifying all the objects to the letters. will give it a little more thought before I make any final decisions.
We have to go back to Greenville tomorrow to see hubbies sleep aptnia specialist . while he is there getting his machine checked out" I am going to have him drop me off at joanns. That sounds much b etter to me then sitting in a waiting room. Have been playing around with a few different blocks also . started some snowball blocks which I first did with beige corners and decided they would pop better with white so redid some others. then I got interested in some applique coffee cups. a piece of advice if you want to complete anything you are working on stay off the net ! I can be sooooooo easily distracted. take care until next time.

Tuesday" we had to run into Greenville this afternoon for hubbies heart check up and they want him to go back on Friday to have his sleep aptnia machine checked. some days are like that" you spend more time sitting in the car and doctors offices then anything else. I did manage to get a few more rows done on my scarf so that was a good thing and on the way back we pulled into sams where I ran in and grabbed a case of mushrooms. I finally got a chance to use my rice cooker and made some rice pilof yummmmmmmmmmmm it was a success and I think it will be used more often then cooking it on the stove. It was oh so simple and very good.
There is a video of a newscast going on around facebook and if you haven't seen it be sure and play it if you do. The new smart phones have tracking devices that when you post a picture of your sweet grandchild on facebook using your smart phone they can find out where you live , where the picture was taken, where your child goes to school and what park she frequents. it is sooooooooo gosh dang scarry. *I have to tell you that I would hate being a parent in this day in age" there are so many new things and great technical advantages but with them come greater risks. Just really be ware of what you are doing . O.k. I am out for tonite. my boss called me to tell me that we have to be back to work Monday to clean and I was laughing so hard I could barely speak to her. when I was in Spokane my sil has all these cool ring tones and he had one for your boss" welllllllllll I naturally downloaded it and whenever she calls it plays. Now I will have to play it for her because I could not explain what I was laughing so hard about. I do not lie welllllllllll lols take care until next time .

Frustrated Monday!
As many of you know I have been contemplating buying a rice cooker. well I finally decided to simply pick up a cheap one and see if we use it very often. if not and it turns out to be just another thing to sit around taking up space then I can donate it to the grandson and not be out much. wellllllll the darn thing does not have any kind of recipe book in it at all" the first thing I wanted to make in it was rice with chicken stock instead of water but do you think I can find out what measurments to use? I have been on the net for the past 45 minutes looking for rice recipes using a rice cooker everytime I find a place that matches my inquiry it turns out to be cooking rice on the top of the stove.Urrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I guess I am just going to have to go out and buy a rice cookbook to find out what I want to know. Usually the internet is such a helpful place but for some odd reason not so with rice cooker recipes.
Well the time is moving along much too quickly " I will be headed back to work before I know it. not sure I am looking forward too it. Have gotten much too used to sleeping in and doing what I want too all day long. that being said" we do have a joanns coming into Goldsboro and it should be ready next month so working would help pay for all the money I knowwwwwwwww that I will spend there! some things you just have to do". take care until next time.

Its Saturday yippeeeeeee"""" I got my knitting bowl and took a quick picture of it at the ceramic shop"

I love it! and apparently a lot of others did too. she said everyone is buying the yarn bowl after seeing mine made up and wants to do one too including her so I did a good thing! lols

This is what I have been working on lately. those of you who know me" know that I cannot stand to work on one thing at a time. this is a green scarf I just started" it actually started out as one of those childrens head bands but I liked the pattern so well that I added too it and decided to make it into a scarf.

The next one is  a red basket weave baby blanket that I started just because I like the pattern. Hear that Kerrie?

And the last one is yet another baby blanket in the grandmothers pattern just because I wound up a messy ball of yarn and it sounded good. I also have a gorgous red scarf going on in my escape , hopefully one of these days I will remember to get a picture of it as well.

That is about all that is going on today. I have been running around in town so I guess I had better get busy and go through my email so that I can get something done. take care until next time.

Hey guys its Friday! a brand new day! its got to be better then yesterday. you know that old saying measure twice and cut once. wellllllllll I got excited about what I was making and cut without thinking and messed up the whole piece of fabric darn it! Anyway today is a new day. right now I am doing laundry while reading all my messages and getting computer stuff done.
I have a question for you"  How many of you have rice cookers? Do you actually use them or do they just take up space? I have been reading a lot about them lately and they sound very convenient. hubby says we already have a rice cooker a pot with a lid. mennnnnnnnnnnn!!!! this coming from a man that just had to have a juice maker which I think he has used twice, and an ice cream machine that has been used once". and of course I had to have a waffle maker which has been used maybe three times. so I am no better about gadgets then he is. soooooooo this is why I am taking this little survey to see whether I really need one or not. We don't usually eat a lot of rice but I suspect that if we had one we might eat more? I have been reading about all these different kinds of rice that I have never used that might be interesting to try. come onnnnnnnnnn guys help me out here" what do you think????
O.k back to the laundry. Hopefully tomorrow you will see a picture of my new yarn bowl! yessssssssss!!!!!

well I slept in until seven this morning and since hubby uses a machine for aptnia I usually wear earplugs so that I can sleep through it. anyway he told me when I got up that I missed all the excitement this morning. as I told you before we have two humming bird feeders off of our deck and since we had around twenty of them born here this year it has been busy all the time. well when hubby got up the dogs were barking so he went outside to see what was going on and there was a water moccasin wrapped around the thing that holds the humming bird feeder and he was catching our humming birds. Doug is a quick thinker on his feet" (much faster then I am) and he ran back into the house and got our grabber (you know the type you see on t.v. for grabbing things in high cupboards ect. He got the snake with that and flung it down. well it crawled into our flower bed so he spent the next few minutes getting it out of there. then he killed it with a shovel . sooooooo sad " not the snake I am glad he is gone but he had gotten at least one of our humming birds. Well I have not even had my coffee yet so will close for now. just another exciting day in n.c. take care folks.

Its hump day and even though I am not working right now I feel it! somehow I have done something to my shoulder blade and it is driving me crazy. I suspect the new pillows we bought might just be the culprit. I changed back to my old one last nite and it hasen't been quite as bad today.

Got a chance to talk via email to my swap partner and have a pretty good idea on the colors she likes. turns out she likes the same ones I do" lols this should be fun. Now I have to get busy and make something. I have a couple of different idea's so will go looking for patterns tomorrow.

I worked on my basket weave baby blanket for awhile today and was disappointed to find a mistake about twelve rows ago. soooooooo I ripped it all out and started over again. Doug gets so mad at me" He says no one but you will ever notice it but there is just something inside me that won't let me leave it once I have seen it. Hope I am not the only one that way.

I found a saying today that I just love. It says today is the oldest you have ever been, yet the youngest you will ever be. so enjoy this day while it lasts. think it is perfect for a birthday card but its also food for thought any day.

Someone asked me if I believe in angels" of course I said doesn't everyone." I have always felt that there are angels watching over us. speaking of things with wings. do you all have a lot of humming birds this year? We have two feeders out and have had to fill them twice a day. we must have had twenty babies born here this year. that's just a guess because they are almost impossible to count. we also had fireflies this year. that is the first time I have seen any here since we moved here. Love those things! wish the grandkids could be here to see them too. O.k its time to go get something done. until next time take care'

Its Monday and I am at the computer procrastinating on getting something done. I did manage to go to one of my trunks and remove a garbage bag full of materials that I know I will never get around to using. most of them were vests that I bought (the panal type ) on sale at a quilt shop. I have a neighbor down the street that uses these types of things to sew with a young sewing group in her church. '
Have you noticed that your quilting style and colors change over time.? When I first started quilting I used blues and greens and browns. then I seemed to move to brites " probably because I have a lot of grandkids and brites and grandkids seem to go together. Next I found myself attracted to pastels and some of the colors that I strayed away from in the past I tend to use on a regular basis now. for years you never saw an orange color in my stash but my daughter wanted orange in one of her daughters quilts and once I started working with it" I actually liked it. I guess what I am trying to say is we should never say never until we try it first. Now I am good with most colors. although I am still drawn to Victorian types of pinks and beiges, greens and lacy looks I still like the brites as well. I recently made myself a circle lap quilt and have become quite attached to looking at all of those circles as I am all snuggled up inside of it. actually I am quite surprised that I enjoy it as much as I do because it reminds me more of a modern technique and I tend to shy away from anything modern in quilts. my favorite are scrap quilt as those of you who know me can tell by my posts.I love putting fabrics together. so many people find it difficult. one of my best friends used to come into my beauty shop back when I worked as a cosmetologist and she would be carrying a stack of fabrics. she said linda would you please match these up for me.  I tried to explain that if you pick a pattern fabric that you like and then pull those colors out of that pattern you have it made. then you simply go from there and add fabrics within the same color frame with different textures. Maybe it is just because I enjoy picking colors that it comes easy for me.
I have been matched up with my swap partner which is very exciting! can't wait to get started working on a project or two and then I need to go shopping. These swaps can be such fun.! I don't usually get involved in a lot of them because by the time I  get home from working I am usually too tirid to even think about sewing. and I always get involved in the teacher swap at school " that one goes all year long.  But this is the second tie I have joined Khristines swap. I so enjoyed the first one too.
Oh I made a new recipe last nite called korrean beef from damdelicious blog. it was very good! Love trying out different recipes . Do you all collect cookbooks? and do you use them? I have collected them for years and even though I look through them I tend to get my recipes off the net. am I the only strange one out there? O.k. time to go and try and get something done today. you all take care until next time".

Hey there" here it is the third of august already!And although I seem to be running all the time I am not accomplishing very much. I have been admiring all of the knitting bowls on the net lately and got to thinking that if we had a ceramic store in town I could probably make my own. soooooo I went through the phone book and nothing was listed under ceramics which is not unusual around here. soooooo I did the next best thing" I saw my boss on facebook and asked her and she happened to know as her granddaughter goes there" sooooooooo off I went this morning and she had one knitting bowl " which I took and painted it three coats and then three coats of another paint around the bottom of the bowl. I used a glazed paint so am reallyyyyyyy excited to see it once it has done its time in the kiln. While I was sitting there waiting for my paint to dry " I thought why not kill two birds with one stone as they say" and so I called an old girlfriend who used to work with us and has since retirid. I am always planning to call her and meet for lunch and life seems to get in the way soooooooo we met and had lunch. It was nice".
I also stopped off at michaels for some yarn so I was all set to start working on a new basketweave pattern that I found the other day. I decided on bright red since the studies seem to say that babies like bright colors. I have started it and have about five rows done so far. once I get all the knit rows completed and start on the pattern I will try and post a picture of it. That goes for the bowl too. I could kick myself as I had planned to take a picture of the bowl in its various stages but there was a little girl there that was taking up my attention most of the time so I am afraid I completely forgot about taking out my camera.
Well the deadline for the friendship swap sign up is tomorrow so hopefully I will find out who my swap partner is. I am getting anxouse to get started! Untill next time take care"