A favorite gift from DH (of Macbook gift fame) was The Embroidairies t-shirt from Threadless.
Archive for December, 2007
Wait, what happened to 2007?
Where does the time go? I’m not much of a looker-backer. I’m more of an I’m-just-trying-to-keep-upper. I’m also not much of a resolver. I think for 2008, I’ll just keep trying to do a little better at everything each day. I think I’ll also try to expand my horizons. The run up to 2008 will be quiet and that’s the way I like it. Perhaps a little good food (good food = cooked by someone else), perhaps some (HD!) TV (can’t get enough of Law & Order marathons), and hopefully some sewing since I don’t have my block of the month for January done. Festive, no?
Here is something that is festive:
A blog contest win from the nice folks at Michael Miller Fabrics! Oh, thank you, Kathy! How did she know I have a gingham fetish? Both the Ruffle Rac and Bias Trim come in loads of gingham and pindot colors. Fun, fun!
Let’s see, what else was I going to tell you? One thing is a great book from 1998, 101 Fabulous Rotary-Cut Quilts by Judy Hopkins & Nancy J. Martin. I found it at a used book store recently. I don’t know how I missed this book–chock full (well, with 101, to be exact) of GREAT patterns! I know I have many of these patterns in other books, but I love that they are all in one juicy book that is great to curl up with on a winter’s night.
Finally, in the “you snooze, you lose” department, we have a longstanding household tradition of a Boston terrier calendar for the kitchen. We don’t buy them until after Christmas, of course (part of the tradition, no doubt). How could Borders sell out of Boston terrier calendars? Of course, if you had spent any portion of the holiday season cleaning up Christmas ornaments destroyed by a Boston terrier (let alone three separate occasions; what is up with that and how did she get so far up the tree?), followed by searching out and paying FULL PRICE for replacements of a couple of favorites (thank you, eBay), you might not care if these dear little dogs stared down on your meal preparation for the year. But still, they are awfully cute. Instead, this is what will be gracing the kitchen wall space this year (dear daughter will be thrilled):
Don’t worry, little piggies, we are vegetarians.
I think there will be a full-scale return to the sewing machine very soon! There’s that whole box of City Girl and a stack of P&B Pop Parade, among other things. And, you have to run and see the free ApplePop pattern. I eBayed an 8″ applecore template just for that.
Ready or not, happy new year!
I’ve had too much sugar
I hope you and yours enjoyed a great Christmas. We returned from sunny Indiana (back to grey Michigan) with one less child. Since we only have one child, there are currently no children in the house. Granny and dear daughter are thick as thieves, so they’ll be spending the rest of the holiday break together. I’m not sure even Granny can break through the American Girl/Playmobil fog that has set in. When did 1974 become historic anyway?
Here’s a little antidote to too much anise candy and Christmas cookies. Yes, you may just apply directly to your thighs. I do.
Combine:
2 – 8 oz. lite cream cheese (practically dietetic, this stuff)
2/3 cup chopped olives
2 tbsp. prepared horseradish (not the sauce)
1/2 cup grated parmesan
Ooooh, very tasty with stone ground wheat crackers.
I hope to return to sewing very soon. I miss my sewing machine and have lots of projects piling up. In the meantime, I think the painting is done but there is toting of barges and lifting of bolts to replace it. Speaking of which, I’d best slurgle the rest of my coffee and get with it.
Santa sent me an email
…when he registered my new MacBook!
And it looks like I’m getting a new puppy too, right, Santa?! (that would be no)
Thanks, Santa!
And Marrie Krisshmess to one and all!
It all started with buttock
Do you remember the puffball schoolhouses and the text-y background fabric from here? This was going to be a gift for the teacher but then the teacher doesn’t accept gifts, so I was going to finish it to make a pillow for the rocking chair in the classroom. Well, then tonight I was basting it so’s I could quilt it and I started reading the text. Oh, ha ha ha, there’s “buttock.” The kids will be amused by that.
Oh, there’s another “buttock” and another. Hmm. Maybe I better read some of this. So, it turns out that there are references to The Pillowman, a play by Martin McDonagh about, among other things, a string of child murders. There are also references to Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story, a documentary dealing with the first live telecast of a boxing match in which a boxer is killed. Those are the highlights.
I googled some of the other text and it turns out this is a very pithy piece of fabric. Personally, I don’t have a problem with the subject matter. But I don’t think it’s appropriate as part of a pillow in an elementary school classroom. If it just stuck with “buttock,” I would be all for it!
Twas the the night before the return to school
Which is more wearing on a person (who is not very prepared for Christmas): a colossol dump of snow or a snow day? Yeah, I don’t know either, but a combination of the two has me exhaustipated. But, good news, people, they plowed the bus stop! They haven’t plowed the bus stop in the three years we’ve been renting a space there. Funny, the bus stop was plowed, but the children were nestled all snug in their beds resting up to drive their parents crazy today.
So, in my charming holiday spirit, we did several festive things today. Jo-Ann’s, Target and Michael’s! We were undaunted by the snow mountains newly appearing in shopping center parking lots. Hey, those would be good for sledding! Come on, it was only about 7-8 inches of snow (wait, my armpit muscles say don’t forget about the blowing and drifting), we were out milling around yesterday. Something about work and a hair cut with some Christmas shopping squeezed in for good measure. Those are muy importante!
And I would like to further thank Trader Joe’s for carrying this relaxing product for our entertainment today:
A kit and a couple of cans of frosting-spray and we were ready for festive-ness. It was not long, drawn out and painful. That is all I can ask from some activities.
For example, cleaning up after this:
What you see is the main path of the storm. The bottom half of our tree was stripped of ALL of its ornaments by a freak storm called Pixie. This must be what happens when good dogs get bored and see something they think they can reach. She had been so reliable. Now she gets crated just like everybody else. I can show you this now because there appears to be nothing lodged in her digestive tract (although I’m sure her IQ will go down when she is tested next…all that lead paint on the ornments?)
Whew. Sewing? Maybe. Some day soon?
It’s all about the process
Twins on Their Morning Walk by Bodril Gardner, Lystrup, Denmark
I think I have become addicted to covering things in primer (we haven’t even gotten to the color yet, people!). All of this painting has given me lots of time to think (and to listen to classic rock, don’t you just love Pat Benatar?). It also has reminded me of one of my favorite activities when I was a kid. On a hot summer’s day, my mom would outfit me with a bucket of water and a paintbrush, and I would proceed to paint the sidewalk. And when one end of the sidewalk was dry, I would go back and start painting it again. Endless. Fun.
So, I think there is a latent painting tendency that is resurfacing here. Obviously, there was no finished product or even an end to painting the sidewalk. It could go on forever (as I’m sure my mom hoped).
Which got me to thinking about why for some sick reason, I am not so much enjoying the painting as much as I just need to keep painting. I believe it is for the same reason that I am compelled to cover the surface of my quilts with all-over stitching. It’s just not done until every inch is covered in stitches. I don’t like much open surface area. But I wonder if it is more related to the process of covering the surface with stitching than it is the aesthetic of the finished product. I admire and adore other people’s quilts with much less quilting. I just can’t do it myself.
I don’t know if this compulsion makes me more process-oriented or more product-oriented. While I greatly enjoy a finished quilt (or a finished wall), just as often I am eager to move on to the next project so I can just keep stitching and cover another surface. Hmm. I’m sure I’ll get more opportunities to consider this in the coming days since the painting isn’t done.
By the way, no, I won’t come to your house and paint anything. Once this eye-opening project is done, I’m retiring from painting or seeing a shrink. One of the two.
Oh, and the above photo, it’s something pretty to look at that isn’t related to anything other than the fact I’ve been painting and not quilting.
Rock on.
I’ll make a note of that
Do you see that? It’s the sun. While my memory is never great, I actually don’t recall the last day we enjoyed some sun. I even took Dog Numero Dos for a slippery walk (you know, the kind where the gripping-slippery-surfaces muscle hurts a little when you return). Dog Numero Uno has a raging ear infection and dainty paws. She didn’t get to go.
A wintry mix
I find myself of late more often at the far end of an extendo paint roller than at my sewing machine. A sad state of affairs, indeed. I am trying to keep sanity-reducing activities to a schedule though. After slip-sliding to the bus stop, today was for laundry and some holiday gift sewing.
This may be a teacher gift–probably in the form of a pillow. Howeva, dear daughter informed me today that her teacher doesn’t accept holiday gifts. Fair enough, but it would have been handy to have known that earlier. I like this sew much, I may just keep it for myself. So there. Yes, holiday spirit abounds around here… Don’t you love the text-y background?? It’s a Nancy Wolff print from Kaufman. Love it!
Here we have another holiday gift in the making:
This Trees on the Table is from the grand FREE pattern from Marcie at Patchalot Patterns. What a fun pattern. Pay no attention to my filled tote bag collection/filing system in the upper left corner…
Cupcake winner!
Had to wait until the chief name-draw-er got home from school. The winner of the cupcake quilt is Diane from PersnickityQuilts! Congratulations, Diane! And thanks to everyone for visiting and commenting! It’s been great to hear from so many visitors.
Several of you answered the trivia question and got your name in the drawing twice. Mrs. Schmenkman is the name that Jamie Lee Curtis and Holly Fulger called each other on the sitcom Anything But Love in the late 1980s-early 1990s. It was short-lived but amusing. Since Mrs. Schmenkmans come as a pair, the other half of this pair can be found at ArtsyFartsyQuilts. Our friendship has been a long, hilarious sitcom which I hope will never be cancelled.
Mrs. Schmenkman Quilts 