A new addition !

We have a new addition ! Ken has something new to drive ! YEAH ! It arrived this weekend so was fun for me to come home and see what he was telling me about while I was gone. Everyone at quilt camp wanted to know what kind of truck it was.....silver......so now I know... it's a Chevy !

And it smells so new and has no saw dust in it ! The "old" truck is still in the family, how can someone part with anything that has served so well. It's 9 years old and has hit 200,000 miles, it doesn't owe us anything so will serve as a great work truck and pull loads of cabinets until it doesn't run anymore. Meanwhile "The Cabinet Guy " has something new to get to the shop in ! Yeah ! And the air conditioner even works !

I got to go for a ride tonight, so we went to celebrate at Dairy Queen with blizzards outside on their patio, what's one more ounce of food into the weekend of crazy eating. Going out with a BANG and tomorrow it's celery and carrots !

What a great Getaway !

Back from quilt camp ! What a wonderful getaway weekend, thursday to sunday, we all had such fun and ate more than anyone should eat in a month ! We sewed early , sewed late, some took naps, some scrapbooked, everyone had a great time. Lots of laughing and visiting and having a great time with friends !
Here is my main accomplishment. I finished the top I had blogged about a while back, it's a picture on fabric with a pieced border around it. The top is finished, now the quilting is looming ahead, needs lots of neat detail and maybe some special beading, what a good feeling to have accomplished it. I'm looking forward to having the wallhanging in our bedroom when it's done. Barb my "guru" was there and cheering me on, her design just was a marvel to us all and it's so neat to see it come to life. I think the quilting will even add more dimension to the finished piece. Thankyou Barb, I've definitely stepped out of my normal traditional quilting "box" and have realized the artwork that can happen with the right guidance ! The dimension marveled us all. There were alot of little voices from the projects that never made it out of the bag calling to me but they had to wait while this one made it to the end ! They'll get their turn eventually but it felt so good to get this one so far !
Here is the gang at Quilt camp, what a fun weekend we had !

This is Amy and Corrina at their sewing machines, lots of fun gabbing time for these 2 young moms , what a treat for them to escape, thanks to their husbands for keeping the kids busy and happy so they could find some time for themselves!

I made 5 new skirts.....a new summer wardrobe for work ! yeah ! Now if I just had some tops to wear with them, so I'm on the hunt or will be sewing some next !

And surprise of all surprises, Denise brought me Circus peanuts ! I love circus peanuts ! They are the most sugary wonderful treat, I know it's strange but I love circus peanuts.... and those little bunnies and chicks at Easter that are the same thing ! They get better with age and by day 2 are just right ! How crazy is that, but thankyou Denise for remembering such a silly thing about me ! I think someone else must like them too because the disappeared over the weekend and SURELY I didn't eat them all !!!!

Amy and Corrina got alot of scrapbook pages done, you can see the spacious work room we get to play in behind them.

Here is Pam with her bag !

Here is Barb with her wonderful tote bag she created, plus the pretty quilt behind her !

Amy out on the deck showing me her wonderful Witch quilt she's creating for Halloween and Ethans Christmas stocking ! We took this out in the wonderful cloudy.... thunderous and chilly weather !

Here is Harriet with her Finished wall hanging ! Great job Harriet, she stuck with it and finished it completely !

Here is Denise with her finished baby quilt top and all her itty bitty 2 inch 9 patches !

This is Carol our hostess, she has found her niche and makes you feel so welcome in her home !Besides being the best cook on the planet she is fun to be with ! She's so good at this she's now booking into 2011 !!!!

What a fun weekend, tomorrow we'll all be wishing we were sewing in the pinetrees waiting for Carol to tell us the food is on the table !

Ready for " quilt camp" !

I'm escaping my crazy life and going up to Bear Cabin for the weekend with a group of wonderful friends ! We will sew and scrapbook and visit and eat and have a great time together ! We leave early thursday morning to drive up ( 3 cars) we get there by noon and eat our picnic lunch, unload the cars and get right to the fun projects we all brought. It's a great retreat and the hostess is just wonderful, making us wonderful meals, wine at 4:00 and desserts every evening ! She has this fantastic room to work in and we look forward to our escapes a few times a year !

My projects are packed, I bring way more then one could possibly work on but things are prepped and ready. I'll probably get to 1/3 of them, but it feels good to have them along ....just in case you are in the mood to work on a certain thing ! My "junk" food is packed ! We won't lack for any of that !

Work is going to drag by today ! Bear Cabin here we come !!!!

Check out this quilt !

I had a fun morning with b-fast at the Farmhouse in Gilbert with 2 very special gals. I told them I'd take their picture so they could be famous and make it on my blog so here is....... Judy and Linda ! We met so we could go visit Linda's quilt. It was at the Gilbert museum being hand quilted by the ladies at the museum and it was finished ! It was amazing. It's a quilt that will be a family heirloom, done by her husbands grandmother. What a wonderful thing to finish something so nice now for the next generations to enjoy.

It was from the 30's and all hand embroidered with the United states and butterflies and flowers and the US capitol. The ladies at the museum did a wonderful job with alot of hand quilting, it was fun to share in the excitement of it !

That was the the calm part of the day followed by errands and a survey for a company that calls now and then. I qualified for this one, it was on Starbucks and their future product on the shelf, they are trying to enter the market of healthy drinks and excercise drinks. Nope nothing good to try, it was all opinion being video and sound recorded. I left with my $100 and got to go and visit my folks and see all their new projects. Made it home and the cook hasn't shown up again so I'm off to make dinner !

Organizing again !

I had a nice Memorial Day and it wasn't even to crazy !Ken and I had b-fast out and came home to do chores around the house and pool. Amy and I met at Joann's which is always fun, we were "stuck" in the scrapbook area with fun sales and new projects swimming in our heads. I did come home and finish this little job. My scrapbooking things had been driving me nuts all living in 3 different travel type of bags so I dumped them all out and organized them ( gotta love this organizing ! ) I had found this little wooden shelf at Ross for $5, it's really a shoe shelf, but the price was right ! I'm thinking it might be cute with a coat of red spray paint too against the yellow wall! I put all my little "fun things" into containers that I had, so it's an eclectic sort of arrangement but I hope it works. They are all marked with little hang tags and I think maybe it'll solve the disarray I was feeling of where is this and that ! If not, plan B, whatever that is !

I've found the BEST Yard Guy !

Our Grass has never looked so good ! The yard guy said it's his talented mowing skills ! ( not that he put fertilzer on it too ! ) It just looks so great !

Even the crazy plants growing in the entry are happy, they thrive on neglect ! Even the detectives that came to interview me the night of the murder on our street really wanted to just talk about how I do that.....I don't do anything, it just happens, must be the spot ! But the heat is around the corner so who knows how it all survives the high temperatures ! But the yard guy plugs away at making it look so great, when he does the bushes again I'll have to post that as you could see the great shaping skill !

Here's my yard guy, this picture is in Boston at Fenway Park, I wonder if when he's mowing he wishes he was there !!!

RUGS !!!!!

Yes, not only does my crazy life involve everything else, now I think I have to make rugs ! Denise, my cohort decided this was the greatest way to get rid of a bunch of garbage fabric and then have something we always need....a new rug ! So Ken built me this super duper frame and a rug is evolving. Denise came and got me started as she had it all figured out and it's coming along and getting rid of alot of old fabric scraps that needed to go ! It's kind of a fun process wrapping the "warp" which is the up and down pieces and then you weave 2 pieces thru going the other way. You work from both ends , and end up in the middle. I measured and I"m half way done. It's a great mindless thing to do while you watch TV.
Here is Denise, the "rug professional" with one of her many beautiful quilts ! She's finished some rugs already and is moving on to a bigger frame like mine. I measured my old kitchen rugs and figured that's the size I need so my handy dandy cabinet guy made mine and we soon will have a new rug !

Yea for the pool guy !

Here is the "pool guy" with Ethan !

My own "personal pool guy" got some neat things ready for this years swimming season ! We now have a special clothesline all hung up and everyone can hang their pool towels up this year! yeah ! Aiden already thought that was pretty cool to hang his towel and suit up ! And here is our handy dandy pool toy holder ! yeah ! no more toys and noodles blowing around ! And it all fits so great ! I love getting things organized, even if it's the pool toys !

My Boys !

I'm so excited for My Boys this weekend ! Chris is flying to San Antonio to visit Jeremy while he's there training. This might even be Jeremy's last weekend there so it'll sure help the time go fast for him while he waits to do his last few training flights. It'll be Chris's first time to San Antonio so he can have fun checking out more of Texas ! I'm sure those 2 will find some fun things to do !
I took these pictures last month when Jeremy came on a cross country trip with his instructor and this T-6. Chris joined us to see them off, what guy doesn't want to climb around on an Air Force jet ! I hope they have a great weekend together !

Halloween quilts in the making

These are the beginnings of 3 halloween quilts! We've been busy getting the pieces all prepped and cut so Amy and I can start pieceing them when we go to Bear Cabin for a weekend of sewing.

My friend and coworker Ellen gave me an entire bag full of halloween fabrics that she didn't want any more. How generous and wonderful to be able to make the boys each a halloween quilt just for fun to have on their beds in October ! I've worked with Ellen for 8 years now and it was so nice of her to think of me to give these fun fabrics to. Ellen and I over the years dabble with our scrapbooking and altered books , our quilting and we've even made Tamales together ! Hopefully I'll be posting some finished tops ready to quilt before to long thanks to Ellen!

Our preschool Graduate !

Here is our Graduate !
Aiden is ready for kindergarten !!! Amy's preschool class was so cute yesterday and the kids were all so excited to graduate ! Another year ending successfully ! The parents all just rave about how their children thrive at Little Love Bug Preschool ! http://littlelovebug.net/

They sang their favorite songs and threw their hats in the air and then had fun in the yard with donuts and M&M's ! What a great end to the preschool year. I will miss seeing all their little smiling faces coming to preschool each week ! It's always fun to come and have 8 little ones saying Hi Grammy ! Next year Garrett will be attending and it will just be Ethan and I having Grammy day !

Another project in the works

This is the fun project I learned on saturday with Barb and Ellen. This is what it will be when it grows up. The photo is printed on fabric, those are 8 1/2x 11 sheets of fabric you put thru your printer, then you play around with the settings and the photo and this is what happens ! Denise and I played with the fabric choices on monday at work and this is what we came up with. I got apprehensive so went to see Barb to get her opinion and she thought we picked great stuff so I'm going with it. Barb is just one of the most talented and giving people you'll ever meet, besides being alot of fun, she always makes me laugh ! I"m so glad she shared her talents with me so I could step out of the box and give it a try ! So we'll see if the actual thing turns out like that picture ! That's Ken and I at Lake Louise in Canada a few years back. This will be a great memory piece to add to our bedroom. I've started a fun wall in there of framed photos from some of our adventures and trips !

Another round at practicing blogging !

I'm going to practice this blogging thing again, I will get it figured out yet, so as my day winds down it was full of fun and hot ! Only 104 supposedly today but that's still to hot for May, the clouds are building so maybe our monsoons are coming. Tomorrow it's supposed to be nice so we are hoping for nice weather for all the graduations on thursday including Aiden's ! It was my turn to do "water day" at preschool..... I handle water day a bit better than Chris as it's hard to watch your grass get mushed and soaked by 9 little munchkins having a blast. Fun was had by all and they devoured the otter pops, watermelon and oreos and all looked like they went home happy and tired ! Ethan had a good nap so I snuck in and took picture as he's so cute !


Garrett and I had a fun time playing in his room before it was time to go out and play in the pools and sprinklers and water slide, he was invited to join the "big kids" ! Everyone seemed to have a great time and I took a ton of pictures so Amy could make a slide show for the parents to watch while the little ones are getting their "graduation" gowns on thursday.

I got the honor of pressing the 8 little gowns so they are ready to go ! I remember when Amy and I made those years ago the first year she taught preschool, many a scholar has gone on to bigger and better things thanks to her loving teaching ! And she has survived the year of teaching with a new baby and gall bladder surgery !

I got to meet my dear friend Linda for lunch today as we had a plan to exchange our blocks for the month. Chris decided to join us for some chinese food so we entertained the waiter at this little place by mistakenly calling the egg drop soup , chicken soup ! oops ! Here is a picture of the pieces that Linda and I share with each other by the month. We make the little triangle sections and swap , I make 10 for her and 10 for me. When they are sewn together with other parts they become this pretty block.....I am not that far....and here is a picture of the actual finished quilt when it grows up ! Another work in process ! But month by month it will eventually get done.

So on to the rest of the crazy day, the cook never showed up so I guess I better go make dinner !