Favorite Animation

Tonight, my girls and I watched one of my favorite animated stories...Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. Chuck Jones, a true artist. It reminded me of another favorite, another Chuck Jones....The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics. A simple but wonderful story. If you get a chance check it out.

Then that led to a more recent favorite that we caught a couple of years ago at the High Museum during a celebration of animation, The Cat Came Back.

If you've got a few minutes, enjoy!

The best made plans...

This past weekend was "supposed" to be a sewing heavy weekend. Notice the word supposed.....the two days got away from me. So you say, you have Monday (your day off to yourself), get some sewing done today. Ha ha! 8 loads of laundry, a dishwasher full of dishes, and a trip to the grocery store later, there looks to be no sewing in my future.

Three things of note from the weekend though,

1. Hold on to your hats -- I bought a quilting frame on ebay this weekend. I'm ramping up to do some hand quilting. Anyone who knows me realizes how bizarre this seems. This will be a whole new challenge.

2. We picked up my Dad's roll top desk from my mother's house. I was reminded that it was my grandfather's before that. How cool is that?! We made a slight modification so retro fit it for PC related stuff. I'll take a picture soon of the girls sitting at their Paw Paw's desk using the computer.

3. Saturday we went to our company's fall festival (BBQ, games, and such). The Munchkins participated in the annual scavenger hunt with two other cuties, children of friends. And they won first place. Keep in mind that several all adult teams also participated....and the Munchkins won! No help from us adults who just sat and talked. I'm so proud. They were still riding the high this morning on the way to school.

Take care and send wishes of sewing my way!

Let's keep this ball rolling - meme week 2

Thanks everyone who is still participating in the meme (Kate, Doris, and Shannon). If you've been reading and would like to play, feel free to join in at any time. Okey dokey...here's this week's assignment.....This is -- one thing that I wish I could do everyday. So now remember you have until midnight Monday to post your picture (or, ok, in my case this week a description). Happy thinking!

This is.....so frustrating!

Okay, I don't have a picture, but I've got a great description. This is SO FRUSTRATING! I know I'm going to hell for this....but 2nd and 4th grade spelling words! I'd like to think I'm the "wearing the apron as I greet my babies with fresh baked cookies as they come home from school" type of mom, but I'm not. I'm the kind of mom who gets totally frustrated every Thursday as we sit and study the words assigned for our weekly spelling tests. Sounding words out, repeating and memorizing words over and over, and then not getting them right. I don't remember studying for spelling tests being so hard. I mean, I passed 2nd and 4th grade spelling, why should I be subjected to it again? EEEEEK! So come Thursday, send all your best spelling thoughts my way!

Friday!

Whoo Hoo! Just had to celebrate that today is FRIDAY!

I also wanted to remind all my panda obsessed friends that PandaCam at ZooAtlanta is back on line! So tune in and check out Atlanta's new little boy panda. I've submitted the name Pey Pey for his name. It's the nickname of my friend Christy's youngest boy!

Happy Friday! Happy panda watching!

Tuesday, tuesday.....the MEME revived!

Tuesday, the beginning of my work week....boo! I'm surprised that "Rather be sewing," isn't glowing across my forehead.

I'm reviving the meme. I'm going to roll out the new topic today and pictures are due by next Monday, midnight! Post a comment to my picture post with a link to your blog/picture! Here we go...THIS IS SO FRUSTRATING! Post a picture of something you find incredibly frustrating. Be creative.....

Here's Karma Chameleon. I finished the top Monday. Now all I have to do is sandwich and quilt. Hopefully, I'll get that done before the weekend. I'm so friggin' tired of this quilt already.
Thanks to Grammy Kathy to sending me these photos of me and my family in front of two of the seven quilts I entered in the Quilt Show. Notice no ribbons..... :( By next Quilt Show, I hope to have a ribbon winner finished and have lost 40 pounds. Who knows, maybe I'll be entering a handquilted item. Yes, something you may not know is that I'm an avid machine quilter. I think I have actually said,"I'm never going to handquilt." Cue Kate shaking her head and clucking her tongue (remember she doesn't really do that, but it expresses the moment). Well at the Quilt Show, my handquilting friend Fran hit me over the head and drugged me. When I came to, I was sitting next to a quilting hoop, fingers thimbled, and needle in hand. Fran is a great hand quilting teacher. She's very supportive. Even as I stitched very uneven stitches, she stood there telling me how good I was doing. It was hard not to try with Fran cheering me on. Thanks, Fran!

Quilt Show...whoo hoo

My quilt guild had it's quilt show this weekend. It was awesome. True to form I forgot my camera all four days I worked the show. But Kate took some pictures.... It was wonderful....

Fabric Junkie

Ok, first of all I admit it. I'm a fabric junkie. I can't help it. I will say that I try to control my addiction by only allowing myself to purchase fabric after I've completed a project. Now, I can hear my dear friend Kate clucking her tongue(she really doesn't do that but it expresses the sentiment so clearly) and shaking her head. Yes, I frequent the eBay, etsy, Fabric.com, and Hancocks-Paducah sites almost daily. And my Hancocks-Paducah catalog is well worn. Fabric porno! To today's point, Jane Sassaman's blog. She gives a peek at her new line...yes, I can't wait to see all of it!

I know I have a problem.....

Current "doings" around here

Apparently there has been some sort of detente in the feline realm at my house. PJ (the kitty on the left) has ruled the roost in the last year around here. She bosses the old Snickers cat and keeps her living in the basement. Poor sweet Sunny (the kitty on the right) gets chased all over the house at PJ's whim. Rarely ever do you see these two cats together. They won't even share my queen size bed together. But just the other day I snapped them "sharing" this bit of sunshine. And I've found them curled up (not touching, but very near each other) on the sofa.

"What the hell, don't touch the tail, not the tail."

And of course Mama can't resist forcing the felines to be next to each other. Food the ultimate bribe.

"Mmm, wet food, yummy, don't tell Snickers."

Ok, finally....I finished the sewing on these eyeglass cases a couple of weeks ago. Then when I did the monogram Shrinky Dink buttons, two got all wonky and I was out of Shrinky Dink stuff. Well finally Saturday I got back on the crafting bandwagon and redid the button. I'm pleased with the final product. My sister loved her chocolate eyecase. I still have to give my Mom's to her.

Then today after going to the Yellow Daisy Festival and having my "ass barbequed in molasses" cause it was so hot, I finally got down to making PJ bottoms. They turned out cute for my first try. I've now had a request for spagetti strap matching tops. I really should have been sewing sleeves for my quilts for the quilt show next weekend. I guess I'll be doing that tomorrow.

PJ models

"One more picture Mommy."

Oh and I worked on my Karma Chameleon quilt. It's the "red, gold, and green" quilt. Get it? From the Culture Club song....I'll finish it soon.

And to document for myself my "wanna-to-dos":

• More PJ bottoms
• Finish Chez Moi Posh bed quilt
• Checkbook covers
• Ginger Blossoms and Amy Butler log cabin
• Mom's half square triangle quilt

I feel another sewing binge coming on....so stay tuned!

My Dad

James H. Leppold
October 17, 1940-August 29, 2008

This is my Dad. My sister took this picture on the beach trip this year, and this was the last picture taken of him. It is appropriate that he was on the water, the Gulf, which he loved so much.

In the last few days I've been asked to describe my father so that he could be memorialized by many people who never knew him. And no matter what I said or what I wrote, it just never seemed to be enough. If you had asked him, he would not have thought he was a remarkable man. But if you had asked anyone who had known him, you would have known differently. He believed in living life right, making the right choices, because in the end it would come back to you. One of his favorite tv shows was My Name is Earl. Karma was an easy word to put on how my Dad lived his life. That was something that he and my Mother taught my sister and me.

My parents celebrated their 41st wedding anniversary in April. And even though there were times that they fought or didn't see eye to eye, underneath it all their love for one another always held. As a child of their marriage, there was never a day that I doubted how much my Father loved my Mother, and Mother, my Father.

He was a wonderful father. A man of his generation, he worked hard at a job that he enjoyed (most of the time) and provided very well for his family. And I have an endless number of memories of my Father and how much he loved me. He was proud of all my accomplishments. One that he most enjoyed was my quilting and sewing. It amazed him how I picked up the hobby only a few years ago and was constantly impressed by all the things I produced (my Mom didn't sew). He was always quick to show people the newest thing I had created for him and was looking forward to coming to my guild's quilt show in September. And even though he and Hubbie did the typical "Alpha Male Dog Dance" when it came to planning family events, he loved my husband.

Of course all the love he felt for my Mother, sister, and myself, was only surpassed by how he felt about his Lily, Rose, and Emma. He adored the girls...the little girls, as he called them. A man who spent the majority of his life surrounded by women knew how to appeal to the littlest of the family. All they had to do was bat those eyelashes and "Please Paw Paw" and their wish was his command. This extended to skipping naps, bags and bags of M&Ms, sharing buffalo wings with Lily, making a pretend campfire a reality (setting his grass on fire in the process -- long story), and gads and gads of other special things.

My heart is broken. I will miss him terribly.

Thank you to everyone who has kept my family in their thoughts and prayers in the last two months. You will never know how much it has helped in some of the darkest moments.