Friday Home from vacation

Well just a quick note to let everyone know what an absolutely great time I had! I spent three weeks visiting with my daughter, son in law and four wonderfull grandkids! Donald the oldest is growing by leaps and bounds, Kloe Has decided to become a writter, kendra seems to be interested in cheerleading and all those girly activities. And last but no least casey is just adorable. she is not growing very fast and is still just a little thing but she is soooooooo cute. She has the cutest personalitly. I think she has everyone in the family wrapped around her little finger including her grandma! I miss all of them already!

Today I had a chance to unpack and much too my dismay several of the things that I had bought were broken. luckily hubby is good with a glue bottle and went to repairing them for me right away. Kerrie and I hit yard sales and an auction of her father in laws so you knowwwwww that I wound up buying a third suitcase to bring home with me. I had already packed my larger suitcase with things for the kids thinking that it would be the empty one to come back with me but by the time I finished going to yard sales, (did I mention they have the neatest yard sales?) and the auction , not too mention the fabric stores and quilt shops I really haddddddd to buy the third suitcase. Now I am trying to cram everything into my little sewing room which is shrinking day by day.

After I unpacked I sat down to open the package from my dear swap partner in the friendship swap that I spoke of in an earlier post. I was abasolutlely amazed at what she sent me. she was soooooooooooo creative not only in her stitching but also in her packaging. she did the most adorable wrappings. It felt like christmas going through all of them. She came up with the cutest things to spell out friendship and she made me the most amazinggggggggg doll! I wish I had such talent! I am going to call her deliahla. she is up on my shelf where I can look at her every day. I am thinking that I may have to rearrange things so that I can have a shelf just for dolls. she is justtttttttttttt too cute!

Well it is pouring down rain here and before the lightening starts I think it might be a good idea to shut down the computer. take care untill we meet again.

Tuesday and counting down"""""""

Well it is tuesday morning and I will be flying out thursdayyyyyyy just two one more day before I leaveeeeeee yessssssssssss I am sooooooooo looking forward to getting my arms around those grandkids and my daughter!!!!!!!!! I haven't been able to get excited about working on anything because I have been too busy thinking about the trip. I did manage to get kerries gift finished and have been working on dishclothes. the garden is doing great! I am going to miss going out and picking a bucket full of goodies each morning. The flowers are beautifull this time of year as you can see" I pick a fresh boquet every other day or so.
I went to see a doctor yestarday about my arm hurting so much and it seems that I have tennis elbo. He says it is caused by a lot of useage of your arm and hand hmmmmmmm could that be because I spend my work weeks lifting heavy boxes and huge pans and when i am off work I am always sewing, quilting, emb, chrocheting, gardening ect. geeeeeeeeeee I wonder why it picked on me""""""" well this three week trip should help to get it into shape. the only work out it will get is the slop machine (which I may have to use my left hand ) and carrying around bags from the fabric shops lols Have a great month and I will see you again in August!Lord willing and the creek don't rise" Don't ya just loveeeeeeeee that old saying!

Thursday

Well its thursday and the time seems to be just flying by. one week from today I will be flying off to see the kids. I got up this morning to see the news of a nude passenger flying from n.c. to vegas woooooooooooo lets hope my trip is not quite so exciting. I could do with a nice relaxing trip. lols
Lately I have not been creating a lot because I have my mind on getting ready for the trip. I purchased an mp3 player so that I would have something to listen too and hubby has had a heck of a time getting it figured out. the first one didn't work so we took it back and this one seems to be driving him crazzy. Hopefully we will get it all worked out before I leave. this is the time it would help to have a teenager around. They know soooo much more then we do when it comes to gadgets!
Anyway I have been chrocheting lots of dishcloths. For some reason this has been relaxing too me. I haven't chrocheted for years but for some strange reason I want to do it again. Kind of like the hand embroidery. Am I the only one that is like this?
I will try and get another post in before I leave but if I don't you can rest assured knowing that I am enjoying myself with daughter and grandkids. Yessssssssss

monday afternoon

Gee the time is going by sooooooooo quickly. Before you know it I will be packing to go to Spokane. I am soooooooooo excited. Can't wait to hold all those grandkids in my arms " not to mention my daughter!
Yestarday we went to wallmart so that I could buy an ipod but once I got there I decided on an mp3 player instead. Now we are in the process of figureing out how to download music too it. We stopped by the other wallmart today where I got some better ear phones " I hate the ones that you put inside of your ears so I bought the type that you slide over your ear. Then of course I had to come home and make a bag to carry the player, earphones and the jack in. I found the pattern while searching blogs the other day. It is actually the same type of bag that I made for my camera so it was simple to make.
I am trying not to get too involved in sewing projects right now. I just finished a chorchet project that I am taking with me but cannot show you as my daughter might just see it if it were posted here. A friend of mine sent me a golly doll pattern that I would dearly love to start too but that one is going to have to wait untill I get back .
I hope all of you are enjoying your garden as much as we have been enjoying ours. I know that my poor daughter isen't as the deer ate hers this year. They have decided to move it closer to the house and maybe put up a larger fence. I think that she is going to put up a greenhouse like we are too this fall. I found a pattern for one made up of pvc pipe that looks pretty darn simple to make so I think that will be a lot of fun getting our plants started early for next year. Ohhhhhhhhh hubby bought me an orchid for our anniversary and it is soooooooooo gorgous! maybe I will start grwoing them once we get a greenhouse.
O.k. I guess I had better get off of here and get something else done. take care

Tuesday morning"""""

Good morning everyone" It's a gorgous day out there" Now if we could control that hot temperture it would be even better! Hubby is outside ferilizing and watering all the plant life. Our garden is doing fantastic this year" we have been getting tomatoes, zuchinni, radishes, cukecumbers to keep us fed and the neighbors.
I am on the countdown for leaving to go to spokane" I am soooooo excited to see everyone again. This morning Goshhhhhhhhhhh is it only eight o.clock? I must still be on work time. Anyway I degress" When I got up this morning and did the dishes that I left from the nite before" (I knowwwwwwwww that is bad)))))) I decided to do something in my sewing room. Awhile back I had made the tops for some doll quilts and decided that I need to get those finished to add to the others that I already have put away for Casey.
Its funny but I never feel like I have enough done even though these are a good year ahead of time before she will be wanting them. She just turned a year in may .
I have sooooooo much stuff to pack and its not stuff for meeeeeee '''' I swear I am going to have to pack everything and leave my clothing out! I had forgotten how much stuff I had put together. I try and mail a lot of the things durring the year but the mail has become so expensive that I have even cut back on that. And then there are the things that you make that you do not trust with the postal dept. I made a quilt top for my grandson and have decided to take it with and finish it there. I just wouldn't want to finish that and send it through the mail. After all I am getting older and it is getting harder and harder to put these quilts together so I sure wouldn't want to have it dissapear in the mail.
Do any of you have the problem of figuring out what to make for your teenage grandsons? I seem to be running out of things to make for Donald The girls are easy to make for because I can always come up with things for girls but boys are a different story" especially when they become teens. I have a pattern for some notebook covers so am planning to make up some of those for him. They might have to wait untill I get back from spokane as I want to have him pick out some fabrics that he likes. Wellllllll I am not getting anything done sitting here so I had better move. take care untill we meet again"""""""""

Friday Morning

Couldn't lay in bed one minute longer. My back has been giving me a time lately so I am up early with time to comment on my blog. yestarday I had to go and see my arthritus doctor and we went out for a nice anniversary dinner afterwards. I had hubby drop me off at michaels while he went to lowes. what funnnnnnnnn! I can always find lots of things to spend money on in that place. Anyway I ran into a lady who was from out of town and started asking me questions about chrochet. we had quite a nice visit. She managed to get me interested in yet another project of which I will not reveal right now as it is going to be a surprise for someone" Hopefully I will be able to reveal it later if all turns out well!
I did manage to work on one of those cute little rabbits that are on one of the bloggs. Naturally I cannot remember which one" but I am quite sure Casey is going to like it.
After comming home from our shopping trip hubby surprized me with the most gorgous orchid!!!!!!!! This will be my very first orchid so I hope it likes me!
O.k. I am off to work on more projects untill we meet again.

Decision made"""""""""

Well I couldn't wait any longer" Hubby said he liked the pink and green and I did too so I went ahead and made it. Now to reveal what it was I wanted to make.
I saw one of these on another blog but here had chrochet hooks going all the way across except for the scissor pocket. I decided that there are only several hooks that I use over and over again so I made enought room to hold eight of them and added yet another pocket on the other end for my glasses. Now it is ready anytime that I am. I loveeeeeeeee this idea" you see it dosen't take much to make me a happy woman! I also decided to make a needle case while I was at it. O.k. I am off to play """"""

Monday Morningggggg

O.k. I have a delemma" Normally I don't think twice about color but for some strange reason I seem to be going back and fourth with this one. I need your help" do you like the pink and green together best? or the pink and black together the best? I need to make up my mind by today so that I can hopefully get it put together tonite. It is something for me personally so I don't know why its such a big deal" I guess its because I seldom make things for myself.

Other the sewing I have managed to get up and get my vaccuming and dusting done and the garden is in good shape. The only bad thing to happen lately is that my car battery died yestarday. The dealer told us the last time we had it in for a check up that it needed to be replaced but they wanted three or four hundred dollars to replace it. well hubby went to auto zone this morning and bought one with the same type of waranty for $99.00 so Now I am a happy camper again. This means another trip to wallmart. Funny how often we go there! By now we should have stock in that store as much money as we spend there.
Hopefully I will make a decision on which one of these fabric combinations I like best as i would like to have my project finished so that I can post a picture of it today or tomorrow. take care

Its saturdayyyyyyyyy again!!!!!

Funny how I seem to post on saturdays" Not sure why that is especially now that I am off work untill school starts up again.
This morning my hubby came in from the garden with an armload fulllllllll of zuchinnies. We already had our frefridgerator full so I called one of my neighbors and she happily took them all home. I told hubby that eventually we will have to put up a sign on the highway free tomatoes, free zuchinnie. Did I mention that we planted a lotttttttttttttt of them.
I have also been working on some blocks that I started yestarday. I started off just planning to make one block because I love stars and this scrappy star was just toooooooo cute. Well then I made another and another and thought hmmmmmmm maybe I will make a wall hanging out of them. Well now that I have it the size I want it" I cannot seem to make up my mind just what I want to do with them. I can either make a wall hanging and quilt something in the blank squares , I can embroider something in the blank squares orrrrrrrrr I could use it for a baby quilt since the colors are so brite and add some simple embroidery to the blank squares or again use a quilting design . I am leaning towards the quilting as I haven;'t done a lot of hand quilting lately. I used to have a quilt frame set up in my beauty shop where I could quilt any time I wanted too. Now I just don't have the room to set it up. so I use a hoop to quilt on. The more I look at it the more I am leaning towards a baby quilt. any ideas on the border?
I think my next project will be a lap quilt or twin size quilt. I have been collecting six inch squares for some time now so I think its about time I start putting them together. That is such a simple way to go but I loveeeeeeeee the scrappy simplicity of it all.

Its Saturdayyyyyyyyyyyy"""""""""""

Well here it is saturday again and I was up and out of bed by six fifteen. They were haveing a yard sale at the church this morning so I just had to go" I have not seen many yard sales around here and the ones that I do see are all clothing and little kids stuff. Welllllllll I wound up with an adorable old birdhouse , a cute shirt with matching top that still had the tags on it", a pancake pan for hubby and a cute old fashioned basket for me" It dosen't take much to make me happyyyyyyyyy lols

Then I went out to weed some of our flower beds. I had to go back inside and grab my camera as there is so much happeing out there " The flowers are blooming the tomatoes are growing! I loveeeeee this time of year. Our little squirles aren't so little any more" Between the bird seed and the guiennies seed they are getting so gosh darn fat that I am seriously beginning to worry that the neighbors cats are going to get them. She has around fifteen of them and they seem to be attracted to our place because we have so many birds and squirrels. Well I guess I will leave that one to mother nature to worry about.

Now for the most exciting news this week! Hubby booked my flight to spokaneeeeeeeeeeee. Here that daughter and grandbabies of mine! I will be there before too long. School will be out in another four days so I can start thinking about packing. I am looking soooooooo forward to seeing them all again! O.k. welllllll I had better quit and get back to the laundry take care untill we meet again.

June first

Ooops the page got away from me. Anyway I managed to finish two baby quilts for a co worker as she is going to have her first grandchild. And I finished a doll quilt for my bosses granddaughter. This little girl is so sweet and so polite. she is in kidnegarten and she made a special trip to the kitchen to thank me for the last one and give me a hug. I thought that her grandmother had put her up too that but apparently she came up with it on her own.
I have come to the conclusion that we need a smoker to cook meat in. After watching a barbeque show with paula dean and all the places she went for barbeque so I handed hubby the money today and told him we need to pick one up. Wallmart has one that looks very handy. I read all the reviews on them and found that the ones that use propane cook more evenly and it is easier to control the heat. So glad I read before buying because hubby and I had both thought about getting the ones without propane.
Our garden is doing soooooooo well. we have zuchinnie that should be ready next week or soon after. Our tomatoes are about the size of golf balls so they won't be far behind. I loveeeeeeeee this time of year. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I belong to a pincushion yahoo group and they had some give aways this last week to celebrate their existance. anyway I won some material, an adorable scissor holder with scissors, a cute little sbs pin cushion, and a rotory cutter.
Well its getting late so I had better go get my shower taken and settle down to some chrocheting for the nite. take care untill we meet again.

Memorial Day is over""""

Well it was back to work today and tuesday is delivery day so there was lots of lifting. We have such a small kitchen that every time we do something we have to move it twice because we have to move it back out of the way to put it someplace else. it is a real pain" That being said they are in the process of building us a new kitchen that may or may not be done by next season. We are all hoping so".

Awhile back I posted that I had started a square in a square quilt for my Grandson Donald. well it was driving me crazzy as the squares were only six inches and I was getting tirid of looking at that and the limited color choices. I have come to the conclusion that in order to work on something for someone else I have to like what I am doing. My grandson when asked what colors he would like for his quilt said black and yellow. Welllllllll do you have any idea how boring it can be to work with just two colors."" I talked to his mom and told her that I was going to add a few colors to make it more interesting. she said go ahead that he changes his mind each and every day anyway.( Did I mention that he is a teenager) Anyway I happened to be on a blogg where someone had made a ducks in a row block and it hit meeeeeeeeee that is what I want to make for Daniel! So I started all over . I put the other blocks away and began making these blocks. They are sooooooooooo cool and I think it will be perfect for his bed. I am using yellow, black , orange, black, green , black , purple , black and blue and black. I am likeing the results. You would never know from looking now but at one time I only liked working with patels. Now I love everything especially color!
Our garden is growing by leaps and bounds. Hubby took a picture of me standing in the middle of our tomatoe patch to send to my daughter. He loves to tease her because living in N.C. we have a much longer and earlier growing season then she does in Washington.
O.k. Its almost time for NCIS one of my favortie shows. I have to see what has happened to zeeva tonite. so I am off to get my glass of wine and watch t.v. Take care untill we meet again.

nine square blocks"'''

Have been working more on the nine square blocks so I thought I would try and get a picture to give you an idea as to what they look like. My cat of course thought I needed help laying them out.
Yestarday I finally got the results of my lung tests from a month ago. Did I tell you that I have switched doctors offices. I am waiting for them to transfer my records but in the meantime they finally decided to call me yestarday one month after I had the tests done and informed me that I have asthma. I don't know of any other bussiness that could get by with that. Anyway I am dreading seeing my new doctor because I knowwwwwwwwww that the first thing he or she is going to say is that I shouldn't have any cats or dogs. welllllllllllll my cat is almost twenty years old. getting rid of her is just not an option. Hubby came down with asthma quite a few years ago and he feels the same. Our dog tripod is quite a shedder but like hubcap" getting rid of him is just not an option we adopted him a little over two years ago and he has become part of the family. so life goes on"
Hubby and his son and grandson are out fishing this afternoon so you know where I am"""""""' Its time to go back to the sewing machine take care .

Mothers Day""""""'''

Well I hope that everyone had a nice mothers day" I received a very pretty sentimental card from my daughter. My son sent me a very pretty handmade card with roses that he had colored on the front of the card, My stepson called to wish me a happy mothers day from seattle and my stepson here in N.C. and his wife gave me a dvd with Julia Roberts called run away bride. It sounds like it will be a good comedy. My hubby dosen't like Julia roberts but I think she is great! I sat here the other day and watched a rerun of steel magnolias and when I wasen't crying my head off I was laughing untill I cried! I love movies like that touch all of your senses.
A couple of weeks ago I went to a new doctors office and gave them permission to transfer all my files over to them. Would you beleive I had a lung test completed a month ago and they just now called me to inform me that I have asthma. I swear some things are just unacceptable. I am usually pretty easy going but there are times when you just have to get up and find a better situation.
Not a lot going on around here today. I have been working on a nine patch quilt or at least blocks for one. I found a blogg that was doing these blocks and what they are is just nine two and a half inch squares sewn together into a nine patch block which by itself is not all that exciting. but she has used scrap fabrics and set them together with white strips and for some reason that white just really brings out all the colors. I am normally not into white but in this instance I love it. hopefully I will find some time to take some pictures one day soon so that you can see what I am talking about.
WE have been looking all over to find some chickens. This is the first area that I have ever lived in that dosen't have a livestock section in their newspaper. So we are going to have to get more creative in finding what we are looking for. Hubby is going to go online tomorrow and see what he can come up with. Years ago when we first met" my hubby rented a place just outside the city limits and started getting chickens , ducks, rabbits ect. well we aquired all kinds of different breeds of chickens some of which were quite adorable. That is what we would like to do now is get several differnt kinds. Hopefully we will get lucky.
I ordered something today called a skipblade. When I lived in Paris Idaho the girls there were always using something they called a hemmer machine to put holes in the edge of baby blankets made of flannel or fleece and bibs, burp clothes ect. then they would take chrochet thread and chrochet an edging around the edge of the blanket. These were soooooooooo cute. anyway I went to michaels and came home with a leather press that I could use to punch holes and do the same. This is o.k. but requires a lot of marking and time to punch the holes. with this skip stitch blade all you do is insert it into your rotory cutter and you run it up the outside edge leaving 3/4s of an inch to turn under and you have it ready to chrochet. I love it when they come up with things to make my life easier. The nice thing is that it only costs 11.00. It is owned by a mom and pop type bussiness so I feel good about supporting them. If anyone else is interested simply type in skipstitch blade to google. Welllllll thats about all that is going on around here so will close untill next time.

Monday"""""""""''

What a nice day I have had" I went to work and our boss had gotten all of us some gorgous plants for employee appreciation day". I decided that I wanted it to hang right outside my sewing room window so that whenever I am on the computer I can look out my window and see it. soooooooo we had to run into town and get a shephards hook. While we were there I purchased some chocholates for a co workers birthday and another package for my secret pal at work. The school has a secret pal that you can sign up for at the beginning of the year and each month you have someone drop off a package for you to your secret pal. It dosen't have to be anything expensive but something that you would enjoy receiving. You can also leave them something on hollidays, birthday ect. This is the first year I have joined and so far it has been a very pleasant experience. I have enjoyed it.
I have also started doing nine patches do to a blogg that I was looking at. If you would like to become involved with her project go to htt://crazymomquilts.blogspot
You are supposed to try and get at least one nine patch completed a day and by a certain number of days there will be enough to complete a quilt. These nine patches are done with white sashing strips and they just looked sooooooooooo cute that I had to start making them. I didn't join the group because I have way too many things going on right now and do not want to get myself stressed out. I will simply play along as if I had joined and hopefully will accomplish as much as the rest. I started two days ago and already have six completed so far so good!
Ohhhhhhhhh my strawberries have blossums on them!It is truely amazing how happy simple little things can make me!
O.k. I am off to make some more nine patches. take care untill we meet again.

Sunny Saturday"

Well I got up this morning and it is gorgous outside. The sun is peeking through the clouds so am hoping that it will be nice today instead of the rain that was predited. That being said The rain probably wouldn't hurt our gardens either. lols
I finally got my swap partner in the friendship swap! Have been waiting patiently. she seems to be a lovely person . she is from Philadelphia, and has four children and two grandchildren. She works for a police dept. something I would have loved to have done if I weren't so darn short! She loves chocholate! who could possibly go wrong with someone that loves chocholate! She is a scorpio just like me! and we seem to enjoy a lot of the same things. quilting , bags, emb,stitching. She makes the most beautifull dolls I think that I have ever seen. When she talked about rag dolls I thought she meant just the plain raggidy ann dolls like I used to make the kids and grandkids. noooooooo wayyyyyy hers are absolutely fantastic. From what I have met of her I think she is going to be fun to partner with. Khris evidently puts a lot of thought into who she pairs together. Thanks Khris!
Well this is saturday and that means that I normally do the laundry but hubby wants to go to the highschool and get some more plants. We have a highschool just outside of Goldsboro that has a nursery class and they produce the most gorgous plants. we love buying our plants there each year as it not only makes us happy but it helps to support the school system.
Everything is popping up all over the place. We have decided to build a small greenhouse this fall. It would be so much more fun to start all our plants ahead of time from seeds. we do start a lot of them now that way but this would really give us a headstart. The greenhouse is made from pvc and costs around a hundred dollars to make. I am excited about that one. should be lots of fun to put together.
My doll quilt has been quilted and I am just now finishing up the binding. I need to get busy on some of my other projects. I have been in one of my dulldrums lately. unforutunately I seem to get into these burn out periods that don't last too long but they are irritating just the same. I want to put together some applique blocks to take on the airplane with me in July when I go to see my daughter and grandkids. not too forget my son in law. Nobody could ask for a more perfect son in law then Bryan. he is such a good daddy and a good hubby to my dd.
O.k. well I have carried on long enough and I think hubby is about ready to go for more plants so will close for now. I hope all of you have a great day!

april

Well you can tell its april around here" all the plants are comming to life and yestarday we had 92 degrees. There are only two drawbacks about living in N.C. one is that when it gets hot! It gets hot! Now thats not that bad because when I visited my daughter in Spokane last summer it was just as hot there as it was here . but the thing I hate the most are the bugs! I'm not talking about the creepy crawling types of bugs I am referring to the darn flyinggggggg bugs! The ones that bite! misquitoes and flys and the darn nats that are up close and in your face. It makes it absolutely miserible to be outside. Luckily they are not out there all summer long but enough to make you wish they weren't. They also have some nasty little things call chiggers here. The best I can gather is that they are some form of a sand flea" I say gather because you can't see the little buggers you just know there theyve been there later when your ankles and feet start itching.
Now for the good things. It is beautifull and soooooooooo green here that I love looking out into the yard from my windows. the flowers bloom most of the year here. and the birds are fantastic! we have the most beautifull red cardinals and these little tiny yellow and black birds that are soooooooo cute. we of course feed all of them plus the squirrels and they could very quickly eat you out of house and home.
Last nite I started a doll quilt for my granddaghter Casey. She will be one in may so it won't be long before she will need these things for her own baby doll.
I also worked on a dresdon quilt block" not sure how far I will go with it. I am a bit on the strange side. I have a tendency to get all excited about making a block and then by the time it is finished I am ready to tackle something else. you would not beleiveeeeeeee how many orfan blocks I have stacked up around here. one day I would like to put them together into quilts. and I probably will but not todayyyyyyy.

oops I thought I had copied the friends swap

I have signed up for a swap and wanted to post it too my blogg so all of you who were interested could also sign up but for some reason when I copied it the whole thing did not come with it.so if you are interested look up Sew Prim Kris blogg" It is called a friendship swap and you come up with something for every letter of the word to send to your partner. It sounds like it will be fun! I have signed up and will have to make sure that I get shopping completed early because it is sent off in july and that is the month I will be in SPokane visiting with my little grandkids.
I have not been up to a lot of quilting lately. My grandsons quilt is up on my design board and is growing very slowly. I have been very busy out in the yard helping hubby get all the planting beds redone and putting in the vegitable gardens. Lucky for me" I just finished a weeks vacation so it was good that I was here to help him.
I love this time of year in N.C. it is nice outside, not too hot and all of the bugs are not out yet.
I have managed to get some baking done. I made several dozen honey butter rolls and froze them . then I made three loaves of bananna bread and frose two of those. So I haven't been idle by any means.
I have also managed to start a journal and sooooooooo far have stuck too it! I have started them in the past and somehow always gotten sidetracked but they really are sooooooo handy to look back on and see what happened when so I really am going to try and stick with it this time.
O.k. will sign off for now and hopefully next time I will have something to show.

7 gifts-use letters F-R-I-E-N-D-S

Easter is almost here"

Am feeling a bit guilty because I have not written anything in my blogg lately. Between being sick with respiratory infections and work it seems Like my time gets soooooooooo limited. Of course if I would manage it a little better that might help.
Today was a great day at work because we are now off for the next ten days! yessssssssss! Working for the school district does have some bennefits. lols
My secret pal had my easter bag delivered to me today. There was a chocholate easter bunny, a bunny tin with candy, some shopping pads, some easter pot holders and a pretty easter colored dishtowel. I could get used to this secret friend bussiness! I had mine delivered this morning and it contained lots of cute scrapbooking things. She is into scrapbooking so she should enjoy them.

We have also been busy with the yard this time of year. The other day we bought flowers and hubby has been tilling the garden so that we can start planing veggies. I am sooooooooooo looking forward to eatting from the garden again! There is just something so good about eatting a cukecumber or zuchinnie and tomatoes from your own garden.

The other thing I have been up too is embroidery by hand. I am actually enjoying it. there are several sites with block of the month embroidery and I am slowly working on them. Hopefully I will get enough done to take some pictures one day soon.

My daughter called me and is going to start getting into geneiology. That made me a happy camper as that is something I had started to get into a few years ago. I soon became discouraged because both of my parents families are from norway. welllllllll it can get very complicated trying to get through the name changes, and not being able to write or speak norweigion made it even more difficult. Now however things have improoved and i think she will have a much better chance of finding out information. So I am excited to see what she will find out.

Well that is about all that is going on at the moment so I will stop for now and hopefully get back here more often.

A fruitfull Sunday!!!!!!

Wow another fruitfull day! That makes two days in a row. I guess I am on a streak". I went to work on the miranda bag while trying to get my laundry done . It's back to work tomorrow.

Saturday

This is normally my laundry day but I woke up thinking potato soup because the weather is very drizzly today. Welllllllll wouldn't you know it" no potatoes in the house sooooooooo we made a trip to the store. a hundred and something later we are on our way home again. Have you ever noticed that whenever you walk into wallmart you always spend around a hundred dollars? or is it just us? Anyway hubby decided he would make some of his clamchowder with potatoes. I knowwwwww I should have taken a picture of it. take my word " It was awsomeeeee! Then I retirid to my sewing room and started a little wristlet bag that I had found on one of my bloggs that I like to visit http://pinoyinoz.blogspot.com It was sooooooo simple " I love this pattern. picture included. Would you believe that I just now noticed that I forgot to add the little wrist strap". Oh wellllll this was just a practice run anyway.
I also read a post on one of my quilting sites that someone had taken your local little black bag that you buy at wallyworld for .99cents to carry your groceries in and she had added a piece of fabric on the front to cover up thier logo so that she could use it anywhere she shopped and personalize it so that it didn't look like everyone elses. I thought hmmmmm I can do that! So you guessed it" I also bought one of those on our wallmart trip this morning. Here is the picture of how that came out.
And last but not least I baked a loaf of bread from a recipe I found on the net. The only drawback is that they tell you to leave it over nite as the taste is much better. well we did and hubby says it is great! I of course have yet to eat any as I had to save all my energy for the soup. This bread recipe called for raisins and since hubby isen't the least bit fond of raisins I decided to use some chocholate raspberry chips that I had on hand. O.k. I guess that is about all I have been up to lately. still working on another bag and waiting for the mail to come so that I can get started on the one I posted about the summer bag. right now I have cut out fabric for the miranda bag. Hubby says that is just what I need is another bag! Take care

whacky wednsday!!!!!!!!!!!

This is whacky wednsday! That is what they call it at school. The teachers all dress up in whacky clothing . pj's tops turned backwards. pants inside out" the kids just love it! Wish I had thought and would have taken my camera. maybe next time"
I convinced hubby that I needed to run to the fabric store yestarday to look for some summery type fabric for a bag I want to make to take with me when I fly back to Spokane this summer. Have any of you ever taken your hubbies inside a fabric store with you? welllllll let me tell you it can be quite the experience. Hubby kept following me around and asking me what I was looking for? well when I explained what I wanted he started pointing out this fabric and that fabric. I told him I will know it when I see it as it will hollar at me and sayyyyyyy take me home" He said will I be able to hear it hollar in case you don't? I cracked up! Mennnnnn ya gotta love em!
Anyway I did find the perfect flip flop material and a poka dot to go with it. I also wanted some yellow fabric for my pockets but got sidetracked getting a zipper and it completley slipped my mind. We finished shopping and then I took him out to Logans a local restaurant to eat. This place is so goodddddd It has the best food and atmosphere. They have a small metal bucket of peanuts on every table and you eat the peanuts while you are waiting for your order and throw the shells on the floor. they have a great fireplace in the middle of the room and they have windows surrounding the kitchen so that you can watch the chef cook your steaks. They also have yeast rolls made with honey that are to die for! I have decided that I need to get to the store and buy some yeast and some honey and make some myself. After that we returned home and I got a good start on my bag. everything is cut out but we have no joanns here and I need steam a seam 2 so have contacted my daughter to send me some. she is such a sweety!
Lets seeeeeeeeeeee what else have I been up too" ohhhhhhhhhh I have started a new quilt for my grandson Donald. The one I made for him years ago has apparently seen better days so I have started a square in a square quilt or at least I think that is what it is called. I will add a picture of some of the blocks. of course you know that when I add them they will go above the other picture. I hate that part of writting these bloggs. I wish they would go where they are supposed too.
O.k. wellllllll I am off again " will try and return soon. take care

Ahhhhhhhhhh the weekend!

Well here it is the weekend and you would think that would be the time to relax , lay around with a spot of tea and eat crumpits right? Not a chance" I have been going from the time I got up this morning. First I had to empty and clean the cat box. then I had to vaccum the bedroom and the bathroom which I usually let hubby do but clutsy me" spilled some of the litter so I wanted to get it up right away. After that it was off to the kitchen to start the laundry. Then I browned some pork chops and added them to the crockpot with all the goodies to make a nice gravy and some sliced potatoes. After that I decided to make up some of the minnie cheese cakes that I had found the recipe for on one of the bloggs " I knowwwwwwww you want to know the recipe" Well I will have to just tell you how to make it and what is in it because for some strange reason when I printed it out" there is no url at the bottom of the page. so here goes.

You take two 8 ounce pkgs. of cream cheese plus 2 eggs, 3/4 cups sugar, a teaspoon of vanilla and a teaspoon of lemon juice, mix all of that together in a mixing bowl. then take some cup cake holders and put into a cupcake pan. place a vanilla wafer in the bottom of each cup cake paper unless you want to be very daring and you can use an oreo on the bottom. which ever you use it is going to form your crust". Now you take your mixture and spoon it into the cups untill they are about 3/4" full. Now bake them in a preheated oven at 325 for about twenty minutes. pull them out and set them on a rack to cool. Once cooled open up a can of cherry or blueberry pie filling and spoon a little bit into the center of each cup. Now comes the hard part. put them into the fridgerator and let them cool for about two hours. Then you can take them out of their papers and arrange them on a plate and you have yourself a little piece of heaven. Hows that for a quick super easy yummmmmmmmmmy desert? I would like to thank whoevers blogg I got this off of but don't remember where it was. It is definately yummyyyyyyyyyyyy and very easy. I think it made around sixteen of them.

Besides that I managed to sew up a sewing bag for my buddy in Spokane. She likes pastels but I think once she sees this adorable sewing fabric she will like it anyway.

Other then that" all I managed to do was housework. tomorrow I will have to get to the kitchen floor yuckkkkkkkkkkk why can't I be rich and have a housecleaner and a workout trainer ect. Oh well back to reality. hope your day was as fun as mine was.

Another month""""""'

Is it just me" Or do any of you wonder where in the heck the time goes! I swear maybe its my age but it seems like time is flying by much too quickly!

It seems we are always going somewhere and there is just never enough time to do what I like to do. I did manage to stay up untill eleven last nite and get an eye mask and a an eye glass case made for my granddaughter kloe. She recently got new glasses and I have wanted to make her a new glass case ever since but just didn't get around too it. She also has migranes so I thought one of those eye masks would help to keep the light out of her eyes and might make her a little more comfortable. I hate seeing my grandkids in pain and would much rather go through it myself .

I also managed to get into my hairstylist today and get a much needed haircut. Don't you just hate it when your hair is hanging down your neck! I wore my hair long for most of my life and just recently decided that I needed to start wearing it short. welllllllllll I was always told that once you started wearing short hair you would probably never go back to long again. I think they were right because I tried too and it has been driving me crazzy.

We had something happen at work today that everyone who was born here is used too and I of course had no idea"''' As most of you know I work for the school system. I was in the kitchen preparing for lunch when someone came over the loudspeaker and announced that there had been a tonado warning. well I said guess if I hurry I can make it home. everyone laughed and said Linda you can't outrun a tornado. someone said why would you want to try. and I said welllllll if I am going to die I would rather be with someone I love" Wellllllllllllllllll one of my good cooking buddies Namely my boss says wellllllllllll that tells you what she thinks of us! I laughed and said ahhhhhhhhhhh I love you guys too but its just not the same! Anyway then I went to use the phone because I suddenly remembered that I had forgotten to call my beauty operator for a hair cut. One of the girls was listening in thinking I was calling my hubby to tell him I loved him and she went back and told everyone that I was in there calling my hairstlyist. That brought more laughter. O.k. it isen't over yet! A little bit later anouncer came over the loudspeaker and said there is a tonado in the area please proceed to your designated area nowwwwwww. well we all headed to the pantry and while we are sitting there amongst the pans, and boxes of cereal , ect, ect. I made the comment wellllll this is a heck of a place to be if a hurricane hits we are going to get hit in the head by all this flying debree". Everyone agreed and we discussed other things. Well I made the comment How soon will we know if it has passed? Welllllllllllll let me tell you everyone started laughingggggggggggg you see unknown to me" This is a drill that is performed every march several times because of tonado season. Nowwwww you knowwwwwww that I am never ever going to live this one down.

Once I got home I did manage to go to get my hair cut and she did a fantastic job. Don't you just love it when you find a great hairdresser! O.k. I am off to read a few emails and hopefully get some more sewing in. take care and have fun!

new cake plate"

Awhile back I posted a picture of a cake plate that we made using a cheapie plate and bowl from wallmart. well it would have been cute except that the texture of the bowl made the plate lean in one direction. Anyway I finally managed to get to a thrift store and found two pretty flowered plates for .50 cents each. I also found a candlestick that was perfect to put unterneath the cake plate.

I am thinking these could become habbit forming.! Not a good thing for someone like me that lives in a veryyyyyyyy small house!

It's Monday"""""""

Wow two days in a row! This is very unusual for me" If I keep this up" I may have to try and keep a diary again. I will say one thing about keeping a blogg, It does keep you going with your projects. I have noticed that in the back of my mind I am always thinking what am I going to post to my blogg today. Yestarday I finally got off the computer and headed to my file folder to look for something and before you know it" I am sidetracked by a cat pattern. Do any of you ever get that way? I used to tease my girlfriend Judy about doing that. She is a few years older then I am" and every time she would start going through a box or whatever to find something she would get completely sidetracked by other things she would find to the point that she completely spaced out what she was looking for in the first place. WEllllllllllll I am beginning to think this must be one of the side effects of old age! At any rate I am so farrrrrrrrrr still remembering what it was I was looking for in the first place but have a tendency to get very excited about an entirely different project that I come across. This was the case yestarday. I found a cat pattern that I had completely forgotten I had and for some unknown reason I just hadddddd to make it up. I have also made up something that I have wanted to make up for the longest time. Somewhere I saw a reference to creating a color wheel with your fabrics and I loveeeeeeeee it! They are so much fun to make. I made mine out of the dresdon plate designs and am in the process of appliquing it down now. I sat in my easy chair last nite stitching away and it is almost done. Will have to think of something to put around it so that it can be more of a wall hanging for my sewing room. nowwwwwww where to find space to hang it! well I had better go do something with my hair. hubby seems to think that its time we went to the grocery store to get some groceries. We have both decided that we need to start eating lighter and right now what is in our kitchen definately does not qualify! take care untill next time.

Sunday"

Well here it is sunday and I am being lazy sitting around in my pj's. I have been on the computer for most of the morning and I did manage to make up some of the raggedy coasters that I found the pattern for the other day. http://www.lovetosew.com/

They aren't quite as raggady as they should be but the four inch heart that they call for is a bit too large. Next time I make some I will use a little bit smaller heart so that I have a deeper fringe in the end. All in All they are very simple and fun to make. I think they would make great christmas gifts with christmas fabrics or neat valentine gifts if I had seen them in time to make them. (story of my life). I am trying to decide what to do next on my list. I have so many unfinished projects laying around. I have several of the pirmitive emb. designs printed out and ready to add to fabric. I found that I had a embroidery transfer book from several years ago that I had bought at a dimestore and it has lots of very cute emb. patterns. Speaking of primitive I received an email today from someone that thought I was demeaning hand emb as some kind of old persons art by calling the designs primitive. Believe me that couldn't be farther from the truth. I am oldddddddddddd myself! The big 60 is justttttttttttt around the corner. What I mean by primitive is the type of designs. They are very plain primitive in style. So lets not let this get out of hand folks. I am about as primitive as they get".

Joanns has a free bag pattern that is made up of double quilted fabric and is veryyyyyy cute! I am thinking about making one up. First of all I will have to get back to town and see if I can find some material that I like. I do have a piece I bought just recently but it is black and if I make one I would like to take it with me to Spokane when I go in July. Somehow the old standards are still whispering in my ear that you don't wear black in the spring or summer . Funny how those things stick with us. Do any of you remember hearing your mother say make sure your underware is clean in case you get into an accident and they have to take you to the hospital. Tell meeeeeeeeee where did that ever come from? Was my mother the only one that ever did that! Like anyone is going to be worrying about their underware if they are in an ambulence on the way to the hospital. Darnnnnnnnnn it! those of you who heard this growing up are just like me" and that will be the first thing that comes to mind once you are conscience again (is my underware in good condition?) O.k. my mind is really wandering now so I think that I had better go find something productive to do. take care and I hope that I have in some small way given you something to think about. Hee hee

Another thing I have recently gotten back into and haven't done for yearssssssss is hand embroidery" yeah you heard it right! Can you beleive I have two perfectly good embroidery machines sitting here and I am resorting to handdddddd embroidery" Well blame it on the bloggs. In my surfing of the bloggs I have run into sooooooooo many adorable primative type embroidery designs and there is just something so sweet about them. It brings me back to my childhood and watching my mother embroider by hand. I had a hope chest with lots and lots of pillowcases that had been embroidered by hand which I gave to my sweet daughter. She of course also owns and embroidery machine. Anyway I really am enjoying this so may just have to keep it up. I found this adorable love pattern on one of those bloggs. I knowwwwww I forgot to write down the name of it but if you go to Happy zombi blogg I believe there is a link to it there or on one of her bloggers. sorry I really should be more organized but organization skills seem to illude me no matter how hard I try. lols ohhhhhhhhhhhh I think it may have been bunny hills blogg but not entirely sure. Its worth checking out anyway. Wellllllll I am off to create some more. take care and have a great day!