August 29th

I could not bring myself to post anything about my Dad on Saturday. I was determined to make the day not the anniversary of his death, but a celebration of life and love. So I spent the morning at my first little boy football game (I don't have boys so I adopted my best friend's so that I could go cheer "my" boy on, he's QB1). And I spent my afternoon with Hubbie and the Munchkins. And spent my evening with my sister celebrating her birthday. We drank a margarita and toasted Dad and then went and cleared out Ann Taylor LOFT's clearance rack, he would have been proud.

Hello...back from the brink of illness

I'm back...still snuffly and the lurking occasional cough...but I'm back.

Just wanted to post a quick things...first I've been cutting more scrap fabric for more 9 patches. I'm obsessed I know it. This set is using up almost (and I mean almost) all my pink fabric left over from various girl quilt projects. The other color you can't see is a bright limey green that's underneath the stack of 9 patches. Once I got them all organized I couldn't bring myself to unshuffle them for a photo. I bought some very light pink Kona for the sashing.
I'm also working on a boy version with frog fabric that I had left over from a quilt I made for a silent auction. I'll use a light green Kona for sashing on that one. It already has a home. Christy actually won the original quilt I made for a silent auction, and with two boys in her house it is a frequent point of discord, so scrappy frogs will go make peace at her house. Picture of fabric to follow.

So to my next very important tip.....if you are quickly becoming a Kona Cotton freak like me, you'll love this shopping tip. FabricShack! They have a WIDE selection of colors, more than JoAnn's for $3.99/yd. And their shipping rates ROCK! Like try $5 for a purchase up to $75! Awesome! I just got my order today and everything was super duper. They even enclosed some Starlight mints and some Handquilting Needles as a Thank You! So if you like a bargain and love online shopping check them out. They have tons of other fabric too!

I have a cold...sniffle...it must be school season again

Yes, I had all kinds of great plans of progress for the weekend....sewing...finishing cushions....some cleaning (gasp)....but I've caught Nugget's cold. For the record, I did continue with the exercise plan on the treadmill, but I'm definitely lacking the energy today. Here's to a good night's sleep and some cold meds.

Life imitating art

My close friends know that "a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away" I was a Fine Arts major in college. While many of my friends bemoan the Art History classes they took, I relish (sober and a tad drunk) discussing the importance of art. I have saved my Art History textbooks and occasionally will take them out and look through them. In fact, one of my favorite college memories entails a trip to the National Gallery, the 19th and 20th century galleries specifically, right after an extensive essay based final exam in 19th and 20th century art. I TOTALLY freaked out the security guards, as I squealed at each work that I recognized from my exam, and approached to view closely to see the brush strokes--I'm that kinda girl.

So anyway over the years, friends have remembered me and gifted me with lovely coffee table books about art in one way or another. Several years ago I received a truly thoughtful gift, "Impressionist Cats" by Susan Herbert. In this book the author takes classic Impressionist paintings, and reinterprets them with cats instead of people. Crazy I know, but everytime I look at them I chuckle.

One of my favorite paintings is "Olympia" by Manet. One, because I think it is just a wonderful painting. Two, because it caused an uproar when it was shown because of the female nudity and the sexuality it presented (seems very innocent these days).

"Conservatives condemned the work as 'immoral' and 'vulgar.' Journalist Antonin Proust later recalled, 'If the canvas of the Olympia was not destroyed, it is only because of the precautions that were taken by the administration.'" -- Wikipedia .

So back to my Impressionist Cats book.....imagine my delight the first time I was flipping through the book and found this.
This cracks me up every time. The original was deemed vulgar due in part to the nudity, right? The cat above is nude in her fur.....a naked cat.....get it?

Now finally, the "life imitating art" bit....today while innocently reading emails and blogs I look over and notice the dog resting in a familiar position.
All that was missing was black kitten Pepper hanging out in the background! Oh well...still I think it's funny (but then I'm easily amused.)

So there ends your art "lesson" for the day. Hope you have an awesome weekend....I've been dancing to my Friday happy music all day!

Thursday!

I'm warming up the Friday dance music! Whoo hoo!

As promised days and days ago, here are a few fun things.

First, the non sewing project. Let it never be said that I don't follow through on good ideas. 3 years ago.....ahem...when we moved into this house and we went through the punch list with the builder, we discovered these cabinet doors had been damaged. When the cabinet guy came to replace them, he offered to let me keep the discards,"I'm only going to throw them away." And since the damage was minimal I packratted them in the basement. There were several times Hubbie asked what they were? What was I going to do with them? When was I going to get to it? Could he throw them away? To be honest he really didn't nag, just nudged me occasionally. Well, the fire under my ass got big enough this weekend for me to do something.

(Sorry about the lightingof the photos....long story)
Now of course, I'll be the first to admit that the stencils I used, I bought when we lived at our old house to refinish a table I no longer own, but hey they worked perfectly here. I stenciled my foilage and then hand painted on top of the base paint with the green mixed with copper and metallic copper paints. I'm very pleased with the results. Now all I have to do is put some picture hanging hardware on the back and decide where to hang them!

Next is a fun find. Realize I'm sharing this information with you on the solemn vow that y'all will NOT run to your local JoAnn's today and buy them out of all this fabric. Last year when at the Nashville AQS show I bought Grammy Kathy a panel of Alexander Henry's PinUp Halloween Girls. Imagine my surprise when purusing JoAnn's that I found this morsel of goodness.
(I'm sorry about the orientation of this last picture. It's landscape, honest, but blogger is fighting me)

Alexander Henry Halloween Boys! After picking myself off the floor from laughing hysterically I tucked this bolt under my arm and when and purchased some for pillowcases for a couple of friends. Mwahahahaha! I know it's sexist, but hey, I'm a Cougar now! I'm 40 and can do and say inappropriate things, remember!?

Still standing...no cushion covers!

Yesterday I spent several hours working on my first cushion cover. I didn't get it finished because I actually took Hubbie's advice to step away from the sewing machine when I get frustrated. I'm sure they are going to turn out lovely, but I couple of learning curve missteps later I was fried and sweaty. BTW, does anyone else sweat when they sew? My sewing studio is air-conditioned but I swear between the iron, sewing machine light, and stress...I'm a sweating fool. Maybe it is another one of those lovely turning 40 things......

On that topic let me just say that turning 40 was like flipping a light switch in a myriad of ways. Lots of women had warned me .... "just wait, when you turn 40...(fill in blank here)". So far most of them have turned out to be true. I won't share too much information about my personal tribulations. Still lovin' 40 though!

Next, I'll be posting pictures of another project I've been working on this weekend. Not a sewing project, but a creative crafty one that I've been meaning to do since we moved into this house 3 years ago.

And finally, Hubbie and I just finished Season 1 of Dexter. I LOVE THAT SHOW! I LOVE DEXTER! In fact, I'm going to make myself a Dexter groupie tshirt.....I've got to come up with a good tag line. I had to make a promised to Hubbie that I wouldn't watch any episodes of Season 2 without him.....can you hear me hyperventilating?

Well y'all have a good Monday...I've got to hit the ground (or in my case, treadmill) running today....lots to do before the Munchkins return home from school.

Queue scary music

So I've been bragging and boasting about how I am going to recover my sectional sofa cushions as soon as I find fabric at my price point. Keep in mind I've never done this, but I have read several tutorials. Well last week I found the precise fabric I wanted at my price point on fabric.com. I nice chocolaty brown chenille with taupe threads. So this weekend I'm going to try recovering my first cushion. What seemed like an easy task now is terrifying me.....stay tuned I may need some support.

Weekend work completed

In the last few weeks, I've found an old college friend on Facebook. We had lost track of each other over the years. Turns out we now live within about 10 minutes of each other. It also turns out she's expecting her 2nd baby in September. So naturally, that called for a baby quilt! I was going to buy some fabric, but then went shopping in my batik stash. I found these and since I'm in my "Nine Patch with white sashing" period, here's what materialized.
I'm so in love with this. I named it Sunset Roses (there's a Rose print batik in there). I was so excited with how it was turning out, I took it to lunch Monday unbound to show my friend. She loved it! Now it's bound and labeled and will be heading to it's home soon.

And final "Stake in the Sand" update....I only completed two of the quilts I vowed to have done by yellow bus time. Oh well, they'll keep me busy this fall, cause I'm so totally ready to have them finished and move on to some new projects.

What I had for dinner

So much cutting and slicing later....more marinated salad.
I made a double batch since it went so fast this weekend. It's always better when you let it "soak" overnight, but I just could not wait. Throw some arugula in there....yum. This will be lunch tomorrow (minus the wine unfortunately).

To quote my favorite tiger,"Ta Ta for now."

Sigh, the first day of school and tears

Tears, you say? Well it certainly was not the Munchkins. When I stumbled into their room at 6:15am this morning for their wake up call they both popped up ready to get dressed. Nugget even started talking immediately (seriously who is this kid? I swear they switched babies in the hospital!) Then when I was putting Nugget on the bus I got misty eyed thinking about my Moose baby in 3rd grade. What really sent me over the edge was a mom putting her Kindergartener on the bus and then walking away sobbing. I remember those days.
Also, this weekend the Oldest Munchkin and I enjoyed the summer fruits of others labor. My bestest friend Christy's father grew tomatoes (some special for the Munchkin cause he thought it was funny that she ate them like apples) and we acquired our tasty jewels Friday. I made a marinated tomato, mozarella, and fresh basil salad. I would have posted a picture, but after a day of marinating it wasn't so pretty to look at, but it was tasty. Fresh tomatoes, fresh mozarella, fresh basil, black olives, pepperoni, capers, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, and a hint of fennel. YUM! We ate it all. Didn't share with Hubbie or Nugget. I'll be making more this week.

And finally, I should have a quilt picture soon. I'm almost finished with a last minute baby quilt that I started Saturday....stay tuned.

The last Friday of Summer Break

Well we did our final running around today to get those last minute things we need for school on Monday. We did it today, because I hate going to any store on the weekend. I have crowd issues.

Anyway, I also manufactured these backpack ID tags today. When we went backpack shopping, imagine the horror of the oldest Munchkin when Nugget put her "Wizards of Waverly Place" backpack down and picked up the exact same one as her older sister. After many words of convincing...different schools....blah, blah, blah the oldest was convinced it was ok. "But Mommy what if we get our backpacks confused?!" Solution....individualized ID tags. Super Mommy!

Yikes, Tuesday

First off here is the product of slammin' hours of quilting labor yesterday. I was motivated by the fact I had a quilt guild meeting and wanted to take Jello Shots for show and tell.
This was the 9 patch a day from Crazy Mom Quilts. I loved the idea of making one 9 patch block a day. Of course, mine was more like, 10 block every 15 days to catch up. Once I got making these I really came to like them. I'm thinking of a twist on this for a block exchange for my guild.
As an advocate for best buys on quality fabric, Kate can attest that I'm constantly trolling websites looking for awesome fabric at superduper deals. Lo and behold, I found out that Kumiko Sudo, the lady who has written all those fabric orgami and folding books is designing fabric. I got this super lovely fabric designed to look like Japanese watercolors for a deal on clearance for less than I would pay at JoAnns per yard.

As far as the 9 patches go, I'll definitely be doing this again. It was so fun. And even though I thought that I would be making a dent in my scraps....hahahahhaha.

Then today we had a kitten calamity. Pepper fell from the landing in our 2 story family room. When I finally located her (by following her heartbreaking wails) I found her bleeding from her mouth. Long story short...she's fine...bloody nose. But let me tell you I was FREAKING MY SHIT the whole way to the vet that I would have to tell my oldest Munchkin that another one of her cats had to be put down.
And finally, a "found" picture on my camera tonight. I love how the Munchkins are thinking about backdrops and composition.

Mondays call for coffee

This is a short post to say "Mondays call for coffee."

I've been fortunate enough this summer to spend lots of time at home (either working remotely or spending time with the Munchkins). And neither of those things required the early wake up time of before 7 or 8 for most of the summer. Today marks the beginning of the rest of the year of the crack of dawn alarm clock awakenings. I brilliantly made my boobie squishing (mammogram) appointment for 8:00am this morning(I really don't know what I was thinking). So I had to roll out of bed and get dressed and be out the door squirrely early (to quote the youngest). I didn't have time to make coffee. And school starts next week, so.....

Thankfully, there's currently a pot brewing and I'll be downing some of that fab stuff in moments. I've got laundry, treadmilling, and sewing to do today. So who knows, this might end up being a two post day.....we'll see.