Happy New Year!

Just want to wish everyone a Happy New Year!

We are leaving in about 10 minutes to fly to Vegas baby!! We will be spending New Years in Las Vegas with 50 gazillion or our closest friends lol!! Wish me luck as I really don't like people, especially in huge amounts..........................

Be safe!

Merry Christmas Eve!

Well it's finally here, the big night. I really miss having little ones around and all the excitement that comes with it this time of year. Maybe that's what part of my problem is right now, my kiddos are all grown up and adult like now. The dogs, altho they act like 2 year olds, just don't "get" the Santa thang lol.


One thing is for sure, I'm not EVER going to not put up a tree again. I was ok with it until last night. It's just way to blahhhhh around here.


Ok here are a couple of things I made for gifts this year.......



You've seen the gift card holders below and then I did a couple of sets of these trivets.



This one is for my Mom

This one is for our friend Lois

Her's didn't show up nearly as well, not enough contrast in the fabrics.

Then here is a big jar shirt I appliqued for her son

Cute huh? It was a little tricky but turned out great.

ok so now it's time to get supper ready. We ALWAYS have tamales on Christmas Eve. So tonight it's homemade tamales (ROFL NOOOOO not by me), queso dip, spanish rice, chalupas and I'll try to get the coconut cream pie done that I forgot to do this afternoon.

Then tomorrow it's ham, sweet potatos, green bean casserole (yeah DH feels the same way yuckkkkk) and brocolli (or however the heck you spell it). Then for sure the coconut pie and my Mom's famous lemon pie.

Merry Christmas to everyone! And I hope no one gets lumps of coal in their stocking!!

Whew!

I finally got my Christmas packages mailed late yesterday afternoon! Nothing like waiting till the last minute. I had a few handmade things that I was just taking forever to finish up. But they did turn out cute, and you'll just have to take my word on that for right now lol. I'll post a pic of some of it in a while, DH is on the other computer and of course that's where the pictures are. But I do have other pics to share......

I went to my first cookie exchange party last week. Such gooooood cookies! And presentation was a big part, altho I didn't realize it, but you just wait till next year! I'll be more prepared. Here are the cookies I made, they are Chocolate Krinkles. Taste just like little brownies




And here is my presentation at the party.

Notice the wonderfully creative blue/penguin Press-n-Seal????????

Here is another of the tables, isn't the cookie boquet cute?



This won Best of Show, we think she cheated............


First place is the botttom corner, it's not a very good picture, hopefully I've got a better one on the other computer. She hand painted 2 goblets and arranged the cookies in them. It was so pretty irl


more pictures to follow later :)

Jazz up Gift Cards

Omgosh Christmas is heading full blast towards me. Just one little teeny problem, there is no way I'll be ready before Valentines Day………………

Yikes, oh well I'll just plod along and hope for the best. For the past several years DSILs and I have decided to give the kids gift cards since they are to big for toys and since they are all spoiled just a tad and want more expensive things. Then last year we decided good ole cash was the way to go. That way they can combine it all and get the video game or cd or whateva. But I hate just putting a check in an envelope and mailing it. Let's face it, opening an envelope on Christmas morning just doesn't have the same charge as a wrapped box. So at class (Bernina Designer Plus V5) a couple of weeks ago we got a handout for little gift card holders. Looked fairly simple……………………..

And they were

After about the 3^rd one! But then I've got menopause-mush-brain right now. But they are kinda cute so onward I trudged.

Here they are just out of the hoop

And a close up – I made snowflakes with the girls names

The boys are getting cutie-patootie snowmen

Here is the backside while in the hoop – while be the inside after folding

**note the obviously NON Christmas fabric on the middle one????? My MIL and FIL's have this inside. We give them cash each year.

Guess where they go with it???????

Here is the finished holder

The straight pins are in there because I still need to go get some Velcro to hold then closed. I'll put just a tiny little piece, just enough to hold it closed.

Cute eh?

Then here they are as they will be opened up to insert/remove the gift card/cash/check

These were fun, but man did I ever spend way to much time on them. I've spent the last week and a half on them, from the digitizing to the stitch out. But it's way cool to actually have something finished that I did from the very beginning. I might actually figure out this digitizing yet J

The next thing on my list is towel wraps. There is the cutest design on the Bernina 75^th Anniversary collection that I want to use. Hopefully they will go together quickly. Then kitchen towels and potholders for a friend. Ughhhhh Valentines Day may come to soon also! Plus I still don't have my tree up, much less all the other decorations I have in storage. I didn't think I wanted to put up a tree, but the closer it gets and the more I see everyone else's I'm finally getting in the spirit. It will only be a tree this year, no villages or other stuff and the tree will most likely be a 4 ½' but that mainly so I can get it away from the taz puppy. She'll eat anything……..

I hope everyone is safe tonight and that if you are in the path of a storm please be careful.

Go Cowboys!

Well here I sit all by my lonesome wathcing some great football. Nothing better than the Cowboys vs Packers. But I'm all alone because DH went to Las Vegas this afternoon. Darn him and his buddy with a private plane!! Must be nice to whiz off to Vegas for a weekend of golf and black jack huh? eehh well, even if I had a buddy with a little private plane I wouldn't go. nope, no way, uh uh I don't like to fly as it is, and something that little is bound to make me puke don't you think????

So I'll sit here all by myself, well me and the 4, yes count'em there ARE FOUR, dogs....... Sometimes it feels like a kennel here. Except sadly it won't really be that long before there are only 3. Our older dog is like 14 now and some days are good and some not so good, but mostly good for right now.

But I got my design re-digitized. yeah I had to redo the one that I posted about a few weeks ago. Something happened to it and everytime I tried to open it I got an error message and it shut me down. So "delete" and start again...................

Maybe I'll get the darn thing done tomorrow. Then I've got to work on a rag quilt and get it done! I'm running out of time. as usual.....

But I've got 3 whole days to sew. All I "have" to do is go get more dog food and feed the little urchins twice a day and let them out to do their thang. Which is much easier said than done lately. They don't much like the cold and tonight there is snow forecast. They really don't like the snow.

For that matter I'm not a huge fan either. But we need it.

Now I'm going to cruise around blogland for a bit............

Stuffed.......

me, not the turkey! We've eaten, the leftovers are put up but the kitchen is still a disaster area. I've already run the dishwasher twice today and need to unload and reload at least one more time. Jennifer and Tim have left and it's way to quiet.

Don't think I'm going to brave any of the Black Friday sales. Way to many idiots and way to little patience on my part any more. I'd like to get my sewing room put back together (it's been the guest room the last few days) and get some actual sewing done this weekend. This evening I plan on trying to learn how to do cool things on my blog page tho ;) Wish me luck!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I want to wish everyone a very happy and Blessed Thanksgiving. If you happen to be traveling may you have a safe journey.

We arrived home safe and sound after our last minute trip to Albuquerque. I spent lots of time in the mall on Saturday. Didn't buy much, but it was nice just to wander around. I also have a great picture of the view outside our window.


Pretty eh? Let me tell you, this picture doesn't even come close to doing it justice. Mike overhead some saying that there were hotair balloons Saturday morning. Not surprising since the resort is pretty much across
the hiway from the balloon park. Albuquerque has one of the largest hotair balloon festivals in October every year. We haven't been brave enough to face the traffic and tons of people, but I hear it's amazing. We sit home and watch every morning on tv :)


Then on our way home Sunday morning, this little urchin just happened to end up in our car.......



Now isn't this just he cutest little thang???? And it's SO like we needed another dog. We now have 4, ughhhhhhh. I swore that would never happen! Never say never.............

Here she is with her big sister



She's little, maybe 4 pounds. I'll get her to the vet next week and find out for sure. She's almost 12 weeks old so one thing for sure is that she'll be little. Thank goodness for that lol. Except Mike and Bryan want to name her "Little One". geez what a goofy non-name. So that fight will continue. Hopefully we'll have her named by Christmas.

We're working on Thanksgiving dinner. Mike and the turkey in the brine and he'll get up at 4:30am to put it in the roaster. Usually we eat dinner around 5ish, but this year we have to eat around noon. Jennifer and Tim have to leave by 3pm at the latest, Tim has to be at work at 6am Friday morning and it's a 6 hour drive home for them. Company policy that no one can have Friday or Saturday off. sucks......

But at least they are here for a few days, and for that I'm thankful.

So Mike is doing the turkey and the gravy and then I'll do the cornbread dressing, sweet potatos and green bean casserole. I've already got a chocolate pie and strawberry pretzel salad done along with cranberry compote. Still need to do a coconut creme pie.

Blessings,
Terri

The suite life.....

Today started out kinda slow. I woke up with a sore throat, courtesy of DH, but managed to make it to a little quilt store, Quilt It YaYa, in the next little town over with a friend. I got some cute flannel to make Molly a little dog bed since the other two keep kicking her out of the two dog beds we now have. I was going to work on it when I got home, but I needed a nap instead as my head was starting to pound by now.

So about 30 minutes into my nap, DH calls. He wants to go to Albuquerque and stay at Sandia Casino Resort. Noooooo, my throat hurts and my head is pounding, not to mention I haven’t done any laundry all week. I have NO jeans clean. None, nada, zilch. So I throw a load in and it’s 6:30 by the time it’s done and we leave.

Now I’ve been to Sandia Casino before, it’s an Indian casino just a tad north of Albuquerque and a gorgeous casino. But the resort part wasn’t even started the last time I was here. So we wait for our room and when I tell the bellhop our room number he comments on what a great room we got. He had been telling me how this resort rivals anything in Vegas, and he would put their suites up against Bellagio anytime. Yeah, yeah, yeah I’m thinking. Very nice guy but he’s “selling” the place. No doubt it’s a very nice resort, but I’m not totally believing him lol.
So he shows me to the room, DH goes straight to the blackjack table, and when he opens the door the first thing I see is this
This is the tile medallion in the entry way of this suite. The next pic is the living area as seen from the doorway


This is the powder room just inside the door.















This is looking toward the door from the window, notice the niche? I've got a closer shot coming up. The arrangement was gorgeous.















The bedroom, with king size bed
















A few shots of the bathroom









Scales in a hotel room???? Plus a regular blow dryer, not one of those cheesy ones that hang on the wall in most hotels.















This is where I plan on being in about 20 minutes!!
















and then this.....



and then a little of this....
little chocolate casino chips! don't ya just love it!!

Here' the niche, not a very good pic. I'll try for a better one tomorrow.

Now I'm off to see if that bathtub works as good as it looks :)

Since I don't really gamble I'll spend tomorrow in the mall, so I better rest up!

I'm sewing!

Wooo hooo I'm actually sewing! I'm working on a rag quilt for a Christmas gift. It's all Moda flannels. I love Moda. I could do Moda forever and not run out of great fabric collections that I love. Here's a close up of a few of the fabrics. More pics when I get it laid out.

It's all outdoorsy stuff.

oh and don't ya just love my window treatments?? The girls at Passionista's Dec Board will be so proud :) Just so you know I've got cellular blinds ordered. Hopefully they'll be here before Jennifer and Tim get here for Thanksgiving since this is the room they'll stay in. I'll close up my sewing cabinet and move stuff out of the way so the 2 of them and our "granddogs" will have room.

I could just throw all of this flannel on the floor and roll around in it. It feels soooo good and I haven't even washed it yet. I may have to keep it after it's washed. hehe

Back to the machine now, I may be back later.........

.2%

Well no sewing for me the last couple of days. Remember how I talked about the other .2% of being self-employed? Well the last couple of days have been that .2%. I've spent them writing chapters for our safety manual. NOT FUN! I'm about ready to fire myself and find a better paying job. The only problem with that is it won't be a better "playing" job. So I guess I better suck it up and finish that last chapter on trenching/shoring/excavation. WTF???? What do I know from trenching???? But I did manage to come up with 5 pages about ladder safety. I can't believe it took FIVE pages to tell how to safely climb up a ladder. I can't wait to see how many pages it will take to tell how to safely t/s/e!

So since I have no sewing pictures to show I'll bore you with my little baby, Molly J

Isn't she just the cutest???? Mike has started a really really bad habit of giving her bites to eat after he's done. Last night I was so burnt we had burger and he got a vanilla milkshake. Molly loved it……

I was so afraid she was going to get stuck like that. But not afraid as I was that she was going to be sick all night.

In my bed……..

All poor Jack got was the straw lol

When we tried to take it from him he tried to eat it! By the time we caught him there was only 2" of it sticking out for us to grab.

Stupid dog.

Which reminds me of the country song "Stupid Boy" (which I don't really like), and that brings up the CMA awards last night (WHO invited Kid Rock???), and that brings up Carrie Underwood and my fav song of the moment "Before He Cheats". Oh yeah I love it! I hope M was paying attention while she was singing it, I'm sure he was……………………………..

To her bod!!!! He better watch out or I'll take a Louisville Slugger to both headlights J

Ok I'm done for the night, can you believe my finger are sore from all the typing I've done???? Man am I out of shape (omg you all have no idea how funny that is!). But at least I can still type pretty darn fast.

One last picture of my Molly……

Learning to digitize

It's making me crazieeeee!!! And that's an incredibly easy thing to do, I'm pretty much already there as it is. It all seems soooooo easy and understandable in class. Then I come home and try to work on it and can't get it to do what I want.

Maybe it's the long commute home. I have to concentrate so much on driving that I forget everything for those 12 minutes. and then it never comes back...............

Here is what it's supposed to look like. Pretty eh? well we'll see when I stitch it out tomorrow.

That is if M doesn't make me work all day. 99.8% of the time it's wonderful being self-employed. It's that other .2% when he's home........

Even if I get to work on it tomorrow I'm sure I won't have pics for a few days. They way it is now there are a gazillion jump stitches to trim away. For the life of me I just can't get them off.

Then there's the multi-hooping thang. ughhhhhh

That damn 12 min commute.........

I gave my friend the penguin wall hanging Friday night at her birthday party. When she got up Saturday morning and looked at it again she loved it. lol, she also loved it Friday night and went on and on telling everyone how I made it. But sadly she didn't remember any of that part. She was already two sheets to the wind when I got there at 7pm. It quickly went down hill from there lol. She also loved a pretty pink box that she unwrapped. Imagine her surprise when she turned it around and saw there were slippers in it!

**note to self ~ continue to boycott Long Island Ice Tea, it dries up the last few remaining brain cells left. And that's something I just can't afford.

I got a new digital camera Friday. What few pics I've taken so far have been awesome. It's a 12 mp and my old one is only 3. And it's about half the size. So far I've only taken a few pics of Molly, but of course they are loaded on then main puter upstairs and I'm on the laptop downstairs. Something to look forward to tomorrow. That and my stitch out :)

test post

Ignore this post. I'm trying to figure out the tricks :)

HGTV Forum

Well lookie here! I made a clickable link AND I changed my header. Only problem is the only graphic I had was the one my daughter made for my Etsy site lol. Think I'll keep it for a bit.

I apologize to anyone trying to read the previous post. I tried and TRIED to add a clickable link and somehow I got my post all jacked up. Now it won't keep the spaces in between paragraphs. Makes it darn hard to read!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

update #2 - ok somehow I managed to get a good link. No idea how tho.......
but still no spaces. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr


OK I got the paragraphs back! yay for me :)

Another project complete

Another little wall hanging done. I'm just loving these little things! I'm all about instant gratification, and as quilting goes a 1 1/2 day project is as instant as you'll get from me lol.

This one is for my good friend for her birthday next weekend. I won a ton (well ok 63 to be exact) fat quarters on the HGTV board and she loved this one. Then I was looking thru the OESD packs when they were BOGOF and saw this new one and new exactly what to do. I'm sure she'll love it.

I just gotta make sure she opens it before we open that 2nd bottle of wine.........

Marilyn at Ivy and Lace Cottage has tagged me for the 4 Things about Meme.

MY FIRST TAG!! woo hooo lol

Yes, I'm a dork. . . . . . .

First let me tell you a little about how I met Marilyn. We "met" years ago over at a decorating board and then found out we live 12 miles from one another. We've never met IRL, but came close one time at Target lol. Someday we should do lunch. I'm always up for lunch.

ok onto the tag...... (I have no idea what I'm doing here lol)

4 jobs I've had

I do the books and general office/grunt work for our business we started 2 years ago. LOVE working from home, hate all the "stuff" we have to have around

CSR in the Commercial Dept of an insurance agency (toooo much stress)

Bookkeeper for several small businesses over the years

Mom and wife (altho those should count as 50 jobs lol)

4 films I could watch over and over

Gone With the Wind

Steel Magnolias (except I start crying from the get go now)

Mrs Doubtfire

Pretty Woman

4 TV shows I watch

2 1/2 Men

House

CSI (only the original, can't stand the others)

Criminal Minds

Without a Trace

ok so that's 5 - this one could go on and on - I love TV lol

4 favourite foods

white birthday cake with buttercream icing

pot roast

sweet potatoes

peach cobbler

4 favourite colors

gold (noooo not the 18k kind lol, I prefer platinum)

dark red

pink

lime green

4 places I would like to be right now

going down a fall leaf covered country road in New England in a horse drawn wagon

the mountains in a log cabin with a roaring fire a tv and my sewing machine and a light snow

a cruise

Hawaii

4 names I love but would/could not use on my children

Chelsea ( dh hated it, thought it was to much of a mouthful since our last name starts with "Sh")

Molly - named my dog that instead :)

Ariel - to dorky now that it's a mermaid name

Alec - thank you Mr Baldwin

4 people I'd love to tag

ROFL I really don't have 4 people yet that I feel I could tag, give me a couple of weeks......

That was fun! Thanks Marilyn!

Now gotta go get ready for my channel flipping between House and Dancing with the Stars! Why do they always have to put the good stuff opposite each other??????

Yay!! Here is it. Finally.
I'm going to do several more for gifts and I have a really cute Santa pack for some also.

Today will definitely be an indoor day. The wind is blowing so hard and it's cold. They say we might get snow tonight. NOT looking forward to snow. Altho now that I'm a spoiled brat and don't have to get out in it to go to work it won't be nearly as bad :)

Now I just need to figure out something warm and comfy for dinner tonight..........

Project complete

Finally! I actually got something finished, and before the deadline. It's a candlemat swap for an online group I belong to. They decided to make this one a winter theme so we could display them longer. Here it is.....

ok darn it, blogger won't let me add a pic and I don't have time or patience to figure out why right now. I'll try to add it later.

And then I made a to-do list of the things I want to get done for Christmas. omg there is NOOOOO way. I'm way to slow lol. Between Christmas, birthdays and baby gifts I've got 15 things to make. And that's not even counting the sweatshirts I want to do for myself for Christmas and Thanksgiving. ughhhh why do I do this????

But I'm having a blast learning how to machine embroidery and digitize my own stuff with the Bernina Designer Plus software. Somedays my brain hurts after class from all there is to learn. But it's fun. Machine embroidery designs are so cute and so fun to add to things. And fairly instant gratification, which I'm all about.

I'm going to work on a couple more mine-wallhangings tonight. The weather is to nasty to go anywhere. It's gotten cold again and the wind is blowing so hard. It was a nice day, mid 70s, and now this is blowing in it will barely get into the 50s tomorrow. I don't like this weather, but what really worries me is what this does once it gets to the midwest and east. It gets really ugly then.

I'll try to post pics soon, it's so cute I know all 2 of you are just dying to see what I did!!!! :)

Doggie ER

ok a little disclaimer here . . . . . if you aren't a dog person you might want to skip this one :) We are big dog people and this will probably nauseate you if you aren't lol.

Mike got home Saturday from being out of town for 10 days and Molly was sooooo happy so see him. She layed around with him Saturday evening and cleaned his ice cream bowl. Then Sunday afternoon he said she wasn't feeling very well. I laughed and told him she was just being a baby now that he was home and wanted him to sit and hold her. But she was very ill. Throwing up, bloody stools and major dehydration. Thank goodness for a kind Vet on call Sunday night. They pumped her full of fluids gave her an anti-nausea shot and antibiotic shot. Today she is back to her little tasmanian devil self.

Good grief, you would have thought one of my kids was sick. I was in a panic! But what the heck, she likes me better than my kids do most days.............

So today I hope to get back to sewing. I spent a fortune on embroidery packs and thread yesterday, but hey I had to! It was all 30% off!!!! Just look at the money I saved! They weather is nasty for the next 2 days, wind blowing 45-50 mph and rainy and cold. I love fall but I'm sure not ready for winter.

Or for that matter Christmas. Do you know it's only 68 days 11 hours and 58 minutes until the big day? ughhhhh I hate when people do that. Like I need a reminder about how far behind I am already. I need to put organizational skills on my wish list. I used to be organized. I used to have a clean house.

Then I had kids.......... Well and in all fairness a husband that is even worse. HE is a huge packrat. Doesn't want to throw anything out! I mean really huge!!! We got to go to Charlotte for the Coca-Cola 600 Nascar race several years ago. Now for the record I'm the race fan, not him. He doesn't like it at all. To damn boring watching those cars just go round and round and round and round............

But we went anyway. Came home with all sorts of souveniers. Your usual tshirts, Dale Earnhardt cooler (he died the next season). You know the usual stuff. But wait! there's more........

We also had to bring home EMPTY water bottles because they had a Nascar label. Yep plain ole water bottles like you pay 1.49 for at a convenience store, but we paid like $12 a bottle and had to bring them home. I still have 2 in a cabinet. Empty.

Then there is the ceiling fan in my new sewing room........

When we moved in this house 10 years ago we put a remote control ceiling fan in this room which was Jennifer's room. Then when she left for her 2nd year of college Bryan moved into it. So this remote has been thru 2 kids, one of them is not very gentle. Gotta do everything hard as you can. Which means the buttons were shot and we couldn't turn the fan or light on or off. So he took the fan apart, took the remote control out and rewired the fan so that the switches would control it. Now mind you the remote part is OLD and the buttons don't work!!!! But he refused to throw it out. I had it in the trash can and he took it out and hid it from me in the garage!! "Someday" he'll fix it. omggggggggg it wil never happen because "someday" is his golf day. Everytime "someday" rolls around he's playing golf.

He's driving me nuts......... and it's not a very long drive as it is.

Heeeere's Molly

Here's my little terror, errr I mean cutie pie lol, Molly. She's a 2 years old Jack Russel, yep that means the terrible 2s!!! She loves to get under the cushion and just roll around. She can entertain herself for an entire 3 minutes this way. Much like a human 2 year old. Acutally she's very good, she can play by herself in her bed or with a blanket for a long time. She just rolls around and growls and barks and has a great time.

We also have 2 other dogs, a mixed 14 yo dog (who can't stand the other 2) and a 5 yo male JR. He's not so good....................

Barks like a banshee, won't stop. Makes you want to pull your hair out, or rip his head off. My neighbors love us. And for more reasons than just the dog :) hehe another story for another day........

I've almost got my office/sewing room back together. I got my Bernina out of Bryan's bathtub, let's see how long it takes him to notice he can now use it. I'm betting it will take a while. He's not real big on hygene right now. I think he likes going around all greasy from working in the oilfield, makes him look "tough" and grown up rofl. Whatever ---- he just looks dirty to me. Maybe he'll find a girlfriend soon, then I'll never get him out of the shower.

Why did I have it in the bathtub to begin with you ask???? Doesn't sound like the best place for a high dollar sewing machine now does it???? LOL Well when this madness started Bryan was at college and no one was using that bathroom. So I thought that would be about the safest place for it. I had to put it somewhere that Jack (the "other" dog) couldn't get to it. Oh did I mention he likes to pee on everything? I mean EVERYTHING!!!! If we bring anything new into this house he has to mark it. Even grocery bags. Even BEFORE I get the groceries out of them.

Like I said, makes you want to rip his head off.......................

Tomorrow is a class at my Bernina dealer, an OESD rep will be doing a Embroidery ER class. Should be good. Hopefully I'll remember what I learn.

ahhhhh they're gone :)

The guys working on my pantry and floor redo are gone! wooo hooo!!! They are the nicest guys but man I'm glad they are done with this phase. Here is a pic of the floor, it's looks good but I can't seem to get it clean. It's always dull looking. But that could be from the drywall dust / shop vac mishap lol.

then here is the pantry, it's HUGE and I love it!

I need to go grocery shopping to fill it up now lol.

And I'm starting to gather ideas for the main kitchen redo DH wants to do. The little pantry redo droze me crazy, I don't know how I'm going to make it thru a big remodel...................

oh well at least this time I know to buy lots and lots of those cheap plastic paint drop cloth things to cover EVERYTHING. At least I learned to be more prepared.

I've been working on getting my office / sewing room back in order. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have my machine set up and can actually sew something. The first thing I want to do is stitch out our logo. Hopefully I've got it digitized correctly this time and can put it on a few shirts for us all. I would have never dreamed I would like machine embroidery as much as I am. There are sooooo many cute designs out there. And maybe someday I'll learn the ins and outs of making my own.

I wish Jennifer lived closer so she could learn it also. She is so crafty and creative. And she's starting her own little boutique! Check out her etsy store here http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5272100

And she is also working on her own website. She amazes me. She is so talented and creative and smart too! Not to mention beautiful :) I'll have to find her wedding picture and post it, maybe this weekend.

Still more dust, dirt and noise

sighhhhhh I don't think this will ever end............

They were supposed to be finished with phase 1 of the remodel last Friday. Here it is Friday a week later and there is still a huge mess. He said they would be done today, but there is no way. In all fairness tho they did run into several "problems" and I have added a couple of things to the list. Like putting up crown molding in my office/sewing room. They are 80% done and it looks awesome. I think when they do the kitchen I'm going to have them add it to the rest of the house. I'll try and take some pics this weekend and put them up. It is looking pretty good.

But omg I'm tired of the mess. And I want to SEW!!!!! I want my room put together and I want to get out my Bernina dang it!!! :( Maybe tomorrow.........

I did manage to go spend a couple hundred dollars at my Bernina shop this morning tho :) I got the Bernina 75th Anniversay embroidery CD, a tube of AquaMesh Plus, several spools of thread, 3 Christmas fabrics for J and a couple more for me. The first thing I think I'll work on is stitching out "Going in Circles" that we just finished up in the Designer+ class. It's placemats that we digitized the designs ourselves. It was fun and I can't wait to see how they turn out.

Then I need to get our logo stitched out, I think I finally figured out how to digitize it. But I'll have to wait until I stitch it out to say for sure lol. Then there are a couple of Christmast gifts I need to get a move on and get started so hopefully I'll have them done by Christmas. Then I want to do a quilt I saw on http://judylaquidara.blogspot.com/ . She gave directions for a fabulous black/white/brights quilt back in the summer and I can't wait to do it.

Then there is the remodel...... they are supposed to come to the back patio cover in about 30 days, we'll see lol. Then I think I'm going to put the kitchen part on hold for a few weeks, DH keeps changing and making it bigger and bigger. The first thing we need to do is make sure we want to stay here for lots more years before we spend that much on it. I mean yikes, he's now putting in a convection oven (geez I have NO idea what I'm supposed to cook in it!!), a 6 burner gas professional cooktop (I prefer electric and who needs 6 burners for hamburger helper????) and who knows what else is in his head. So if he does that, those pieces are stainless. My fridge and dw are white........ I'm sure you see where this is heading lol. No way am I having stainless and white appliances! Then the stainless will look awful with my pickle finish cabinets and if we're doing this much "might as well" do granite.

It will never end.......................

But it will be nice to have an up-to-date looking house.

Now for something less stressful. Fall is in the air here. I love this time of year. The colors are just amazing. It was 39 degrees 2 mornings ago and I actually saw a couple of cars that had scraped the frost off their back window. So maybe before I do my placemats I'll do an autumn wall-hanging for my new room.

omg I'm SO ADD. Maybe I'll go sit outside instead.

Where there is no drywall dust

or nail gun going off

Dust, dirt and noise

Well I'm certainly keeping up with this new toy aren't I???? Most days I start out thinking of posting something witty and funny and next thing I know I'm nodding off and the day is done. Where do the days go???? My mother always said "wait till you get older the days will fly by". Yeah but at a speed fast enough to break the sound barrier? And I'm only 47! What happens when I'm 60? Me and Scarlett will think about that tomorrow......................

I still haven't learned anything about blogging. My links on the side STILL don't work, but when they do there are some fun blogs to visit. Hopefully they will still be active by the time I figure out how to fix them. But I wouldn't hold my breath..............


My house...... it's a total disaster right now. I've got a gaping hole in my family room down to the crawl space. It all started out innocently enough. We have our business office here and when I got my fabutastic Bernina it also went in the "office". A little cramped it was. Well with Bryan off to college (I thought, he came home today ugh) I thought I would move into the other bedroom. It's a tad bigger and much better lighting. But the carpet is 10 year old white Berber, and altho it's held up incredibly well it is nasty. It's carpet and it's 10 years old and it's been thru 2 kids and 3 dogs. Need I say more? None of whom particularly like to vaccum, myself included.

So I got inspired by a friend in Phoenix, Missy, that laid her own wook-look laminate in her kids rooms recently. It looks great! So, I decided to lay laminate in my office/sewing room. Not so nasty and dusty. Well maybe still dusty as I live in 5% humidty New Mexico. There's enough dust to choke a horse and small children. When I told DH of this marvelous idea, he looked at me as if I had 3 heads and ignored me. A few days later I told him again. He agreed to help. Well by the next day we thought we probably needed to to both bedrooms. Then that left the hallway and 2 huge stains of unknown dog origin that just will not come out. And the nice replica of the bottom of my iron. A hot iron melts perfect little circles into Berber. So we need to do the hallway also. Then that leaves the stairs...... "might as well"

So I then called someone to give me an estimate. No way am I going to try and do all that. Especially with DH's "help". NO WAY lol. So a week later the floors are in and look great and the trim is almost finished. Then I'll repaint the bedrooms.

BUT WAIT, there's more ~~ as that dorky commercial guy says.

We decided to close off another set of stairs that was a total waste of space (only 6 steps, it's mroe of a bi-level plan) and knock out the back wall of our pantry. They are in the process now of knocking out that wall. They've been in this process for 2 days now.

I'm so tired of the noise...........

and dust.....................


and men.................

and the general mess as I have 2 bedrooms and a good size pantry of stuff cramed in the kitchen.

Good news is there is no way I can cook for several more days. The stove has "stuff" piled on it also along with in front of it. But I'll have a huge wonderful pantry in a few (I hope!) days.

And as the dorky man says: but wait, there's more!

DH wants to extend a wall in the kitchen and cut it in half. He's bound and determined to cut this wall in half. He's making me crazy...............

It might work, but that means retiling the kitchen and new countertops (yeah I know waaaaaa!!) The contractor is "thinking" up ideas. great................

But it is going to be sooo nice when it's completed. And hopefully soon I'll get my machine set back up and actually get to sew.

If anyone is reading this I hope you're having a "smurfilicous" day!


edited to add: whoo hooo I got the links fixed! You can now get to some of my fav blogs out there. now if I can just figure out how to add pics in the middle of a post. it keeps putting them at the beginning. yes I know I did it before, but the mind ya know...............

Where were you?

9/11 . . . . . what a sad day. I remember what I was wearing and the feeling that morning. J had just started her first year of college and was in Lubbock Texas and M was in Midland Texas for business meetings. So it was just me and B at home that morning. I got up a little before 7 and went and started waking B up for school, came down and turned on the TV. It was on NBC and Katie Couric was on altho at that moment I didn't pay much attention to what was going on. I went in the bedroom and got my slippers on and just as I came back thru the family room I looked at the TV and it seemed as if in slow motion I saw the 2nd plane hit. I know it wasn't in slow motion because it was happening live, but it was, and still is, so surreal.

I sat down and just stared at the tv. As they continued to broadcast and I learned about what had happened with the 1st plane all I could think of was to get J on the phone. But of course that wasn't happening, all circuits were bogged down. I finally got hold of her around noon, finally. Didn't talk to M until that evening. His sister's DH was in upstate NY for business that day, he got home only 1 day late. Sending B to catch the bus that morning was sooooo hard. I wanted both my kids at home where I could protect them. And hug them.

Now here it is 6 years later and we are still fighting this monster. And sadly I don't think we've learned from this. The politicians are still fighting between themselves, more than ever. I get so tired of it all. Each one thinks they would have done things so differently and that Bush did it so badly. Do I support Bush? YES Do I think he's made mistakes? YES -- who hasn't?????? Do I think the attacks were a US government conspiracy NO NO and NO

In my opinion that is total bull!!!! Why would someone do this to their own country? It just makes no sense. Republican or Democrat or Libertarian, it makes no sense.

To bad they won't have the chance to walk in his shoes and see what they would have done differently. It's easy to "say" but harder to "do".

ok off my soapbox, this day should not be about the politicians but about the heros that gave their life so that we can bitch about the politicians and so they can talk crap constantly :)
Pray for the men and women serving in the Armed Forces.

Now to lighter things.......

I haven't touched my Bernina, except to pack it up, in weeks. I'm so not going to get all the things done for Christmas that I had planned. What else is new lol? My house is a disaster right now, they started laying the wood laminate floor today. Should finish up most of it tomorrow and start the pantry reno. It will be so nice to not have the nasty carpet anymore. Altho for white berber it has done remarkably well for the last 10 years. Between 2 kids who don't understand the concept of picking up after themselves and 3 dogs it looked pretty darn good.

Still glad it's gone tho..................

So tomorrow afternoon I'll be able to start putting the office/sewing room back together. Except I haven't painted yet. I bought paint, but after splotching it on the wall I don't like it. It's called Moose Mousse and it's a very pretty brown, but I want green. I keep trying to talk myself out of it, as does my MIL, because I should do something a little more pratical and resaleable. But I still want green! So when I find my paint chips I'm going to get green. I want lime green walls! Practicality and resale be damned! hehe M will bitch about it, but oh well....... again, what else is new?

I did work on my Designer Plus software today, I might actually be getting the hang of it! We'll see when I try to stitch them out lol. This digitizing stuff is hard, but fun. And like someone in my software class said, you shouldn't be intimidated by something you can pick up and throw out the window!

And maybe in the morning I'll try to learn how to make my blog jazzier. I see some really neat ones but I have no idea how to do it. I can't even get my links to other blogs to work! If someone happens to read this (and make it to the end of this ramble) and has a site or book recommendation on blogging I'd love to hear it.

Night all!

Quilting to-do list

Well so far I'm doing a bang up job and blogging lol. Oh well, this obviously won't be one those blogs that is updated each and every day like some out there :)

B left for his second year of college on Friday morning. He stayed here at the local JUCO the first semester and went to Orem Utah his second semester (followed his girlfriend). He loved Utah but he and gf broke up at the end of the semester. They had dated through most of high school, it's to bad she is a nice girl. But they both needed to experience life and all it has to offer. Who knows if they will find their way back to one another some day..........

His leaving this time was a bit harder, last time I knew who he would be with most of the time (try 90%!!), but this time he'll be doing the traditional college "thang". Scarey for a mom!

M also left Friday for a golf weekend and then to Colorado to work, so it's been a very quiet weekend so far. I had plans to immediately start working on B's room to change it to the office/sewing room, but I haven't yet. Typical procrastinator!

Now for the important part...... quilting! Here is a picture if one of the first 2 quilts I've done. I did this I Spy for my great-nephew Aiden at the same time I was working on my parents anniversary quilt.

I'm going to get started on one for our friends little boy for Chirstmas with the scraps. I've got most of it laid out on B's bed now and will start putting it together tonight. Not sure what I'll use for the back of his, not the Baby Genius since he's almost 5. Something buggy or tractors maybe? Should go pretty quickly and be on thing done for Chirstmas!

Then I've got a B's to work on, it's a flannel rag quilt that I had started very early on (read: BEFORE I knew squat about batting!) and I need to take apart what I've done and put good batting in it. After learning about it I don't want cheap wally-world poly batting with $9/yd Moda flannel! I'll save that batting for the potholders I'd like to make to put with Christmas. It's not that I mind cheap at all! I just like the feel of the Warm and Natural now, so I'll change it all out.

I've also found a cool pattern for a quilt for J for Christmas. Then I'd also like to machine embroider towels and make the nieces towel wraps for Christmas and I've got a friend whose baby is due in December and want to make burps for........ geez why do I always have to bite off so much?????? hmmmmm but after 47 years I don't think it's gonna change. I could probably get it all done tho if I would stay OFF the computer :)........................

Day 2 and still going........

I've just spent the last 2 hours lost in blog land when I should be cleaning up the kitchen. Some very interesting people out there, and the cool things they do on their blogs. I did come across the blog for dummies and can't wait to read thru it and learn how to make my blog page pretty also.

I also came across Marilyn's blog (I would post a link to it but don't know how just yet!) and she lost her beloved Keesha dog. So sad....... My oldest dog, Cinamon, is starting to really slow down and I don't want to think about having to make that decision. They are like my kids, only without the back talk.

I went collecting paint chips today, I'm thinking green that is just a tad on the limey side. Not sure yet tho. I also measured DS's room and got it down on graph paper. Figured out a sleeper sofa will not fit with all the other stuff that has to go in there. DS was so upset, he acts like he won't have a room at all to come back to. All I'm doing is putting his things back in the room that was his for the past 9 years! He switched to his sister's room when she got an apartment at college and took most of her things. He does tend to panic if things happen out of order or if they're not on his list, and moving rooms is definitely NOT on his list. Gotta love him, especially since I can't shoot him :)

Here is a picture of the quilt I made for my parent's 50th Anniversary

My mom was excited. My Grandmother, her mother, tried to show us how to quilt when we were young but no of us seemed to want to learn. My cousin Robbie, who is several years younger than me, has been quilting for quite a few years now and now that I'm 47 I'm learning. Better late than never I guess.

It's "square in squares" pattern. Very easy to do and looks good. Then I meandered the quilting around the pictures. Printing the pictures was a breeze with the new paper/fabric they have out. It's good quality fabric laminated onto either a paper or plastic backing. You run it through your ink jet printer, let dry for a couple of minutes and peel off, then cut to size. The Electric Quilt brand on the plastic type backing was much easier to peel off.

I'm proud of the job I did, especially considering it's only my 2nd quilt.

I'll be glad when I get my room remodeled and moved into so I can start working on my projects again. Running a business out of our home, taking up this hobby and living with a packrat husband sure makes for lots of "stuff". It's "driving me crazie" !! Gotta get some organization going somewhere. I'm going to put in a closet system from easyclosets.com like we did in our master closet. That makes all the difference. I actually like going into my closet now lol. Only this one will be shelves on 2 walls and 1 wall of double hanging. Then I'm trying to decide between laminate wood floor or engineered wood. I'm leaning toward the laminate, mostly because it sounds like I can do it myself.