Monday Monday

So it's Monday. No progress to report. And no real news going on here. I am pretty boring these days.

Is it really January?

I think I heard thunder this morning. I'm not complaining about warm weather, but boy will it suck when it's as cold as it should be again.

Yesterday I went to an energy tapping class with my mom. Interesting. We'll see if it can help with my jaw-clenching.

Just checking in. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

catch up

I wrote this on Tuesday or maybe Wednesday. Technical difficulties prevented actual posting:

Last night I started sewing the borders on the border corner blocks. I only got two of the four sides sewn on each of them. Really I only intended to press the blocks and go to bed, but the desire to progress won. I might have gone further but I needed to reload my bobbin. This time I thought I’d get ahead of the bobbin game so I went in search of the spare bobbins I bought a few months ago. I couldn’t find them. I didn’t want to spend too much time searching for them so I only looked in the closet where crafts-in-progress normally reside. I never got down to the basement to check the craft bin, which is where I hope they are. Then as I was loading the bobbin I had, I realized that I am almost at the end of my spool of thread. I guess that means it is time for a trip to the quilt store. I normally would just buy it at JoAnn’s but I’d like to ask about the quality of the thread. I’m using an all-purpose Coats & Clark brand cotton thread and it seems to be gunking up my machine with all of this fly-away fuzz. I don’t remember ever having that problem before, and I’ve always used that brand.

On second thought, I’ll just buy the thread at the quilt store and assume that since they are offering it for sale it must be quality thread. I wouldn’t want to get another snout full of snoot like I did when I was dumb enough to ask quality questions about their flannel. Besides, what they have couldn’t be any worse than what I’m already using.

Right? Yeah.

And in case you are wondering, I won’t be attending quilting Tuesday in February, either. It’s on Valentines Day and that is a day for The Husband and Me to spend together. We will probably actually celebrate on a weekend. Still, I shouldn’t be dumping The Kids on him and traipsing off on such a day. My goal is to attend for the first time in March. I’m really looking forward to it. It is the thing that will keep me going through the winter after we have taken our wonderful exciting vacation to Disney.

My purchase

The book I bought on eBay last night is called "Fun Fast Fusies" by Frieda Anderson. Just FYI.

So. Not much new here. Last night Chalicat came over for dinner and I gave her her birthday gift. A little late of course but I didn't see her for the actual day.

I just discovered a rip in the lining of my purse. All of my change has burrowed into this limbo area between the lining and the leather. Well, I think it is leather. Maybe it is.

I'm thinking of signing The Kids up for gymnastics lessons at a local gym. Is that too girlie for The Boy? I don't know. He loves to jump and I think he'd enjoy learning to tumble and stuff. I really only want to do it for the winter because it is pretty pricey. I thought it might be a good way for them to blow off some energy while a) not breaking anything at home, and b) not having a television on.

I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of the new book, and hopefully someday soon I'll get those borders sewn on the borders. Have a great weekend!

Fusion?

Ok...I ordered a book from eBay about fusing fabric to create art quilts. Have I gone insane? Like I need another project? But I was browsing at Fibermania and some of her favorites...they really are gorgeous. Maybe I could make one. Maybe?

Quilting progress!

I’ve finally created the four blocks that make up the corners of The Girl’s quilt border. They aren’t actually 100% finished, though. I thought they were and I was doing a little happy dance and then I noticed that…get this…the border pieces actually have borders themselves. Well then. Maybe I can finish that tonight.

On other topics. I am currently reading “The Secret Life of Bees” by Sue Monk Kidd. Awesome book. I highly recommend it. I finished the quilting book “Hearts and Hands” that Chalicat gave me for Christmas a few weeks ago. It was very interesting, and had a lot of beautiful quilt photos. One photo that had me transfixed for a long time was a picture of a deceased baby in her cradle with a quilt covering her as if she were just asleep. It about broke my heart.

I often have the habit of reading more than one book at once. I am also reading “Make Your Creative Dreams Real” by Sark. (I think that is the title.) I got it out of the library the other day. I just happened to walk by a rolling cart that it was on and the title caught my eye. I also recommend this one, but not if you are a straight-laced kinda guy or gal.

Chair - check.

Both kitchen chairs have now been reupholstered. And we hung some pictures in the kitchen, too. All that is left is to make the curtain, put up the hood vent, and touch up paint. Hurrah!

No progress on the quilt. I did however get to show it off to my sister and aunt. They both seemed to think the mauve was ok. And they oohed and ahhed appropriately.

Unfortunately I spent most of my lunch paying bills so I now have no time to blog. Better get scooting. Happy Monday.

Just gimme my paycheck, wouldja?

Review day is over, and I’m none the wiser. I have a new title but it’s not a promotion. What’s really great about it (I am being sarcastic, FYI) is nobody can tell me what my title means, what my job description is, or how it fits into the hierarchy of positions. Well, great. Do I get a raise? Dunno, those aren’t handed out until April. Cripes.

Anyway. I’ve been browsing around at quilt blogs so I don’t have much to say. No craft work to report today and probably none tomorrow, either. Unless I can get the other kitchen chair upholstered. Wish me luck. Have a great weekend!

New outfit day!

So I’ve got my annual work review today. I’m nervous, of course, and haven’t told The Husband in case I actually have good news to surprise him with. I am not holding my breath, though.

To combat my nervousness, I am wearing my new feel-good outfit. It is a striped shirt with velvet pants and a satin belt that matches some of the stripes in the shirt. Only problem: I’m wearing the shirt tucked in and it keeps bulging out right above my pants button. So I am projecting the image of a well-dressed beer-bellied worker bee.

Last night I finally managed to upholster one of the chairs. Getting the fabric on wasn’t too hard. Getting the seat back on the frame--now that was a challenge. The Husband and I eventually got it done and I think the seat looks great. I didn’t get around to taking a picture but maybe someday I will.

healthcare sucks and other thoughts

And so the year begins, with January SickFest ’06. The Girl is finally getting over being sick with RSV, and now The Boy is sick again, after only a few healthy days from his bout with RSV, plus an ear infection. My Dad was gracious enough to make the 45 minute drive after I woke him up before seven to come and watch The Boy. We sent The Girl to daycare. She is a little afraid of Grandpa still plus we don’t want her catching on to whatever ick The Boy has. Thankfully The Husband has a short day today so Grandpa will only lose his morning to babysitting. Not that he doesn’t enjoy seeing his grandkids--it’s just that he didn’t plan this for his day, and maybe he’ll still be able to do what he actually had mapped out.

I have made absolutely no crafting progress in the past twenty four hours. I haven’t even tried to figure out how to safely operate the staple gun.

And I have to go to the dentist today. I do not like getting scraped and poked and whatnot. I do sometimes get to read a good magazine in the waiting room, so I suppose it isn’t all bad. And there is no copay. Finally a “free” trip to the doc!

And speaking of copays and docs: I realized with a deafening thud Monday that we managed to exclude The Kids from our prescription coverage this year when setting up our healthcare. AND we can’t get them added back to either of our plans because it was a mistake on our part and not a catastrophic life-changing event. Gimme a break. If it wasn’t so complicated to set up our healthcare, this never would have happened! Our enrollment periods barely overlap and we really had to scramble to get it all set up. Even though both of our companies use the same insurance company for medical, they enroll the drug coverage differently. The Husband’s company rolls it into the basic coverage. My plan has it as a separate issue. He cancelled their basic coverage, I added them. You can extrapolate from there what happened. Crap. Crap. CRAP.

Join with me now in my rage against the healthcare machine! Oh, and also my employer, for having such a dumb policy. Though I guess that is actually rage against the HR machine, as most companies find multiple ways to make the lives of employees more difficult than necessary.

Ok, I take it back.

I found a few. Check out the side bar, which is not formatted perfectly but oh well.

I'm baAAack

I haven't died or anything. I'm still here. Our family was taken over by the Dread Daycare germs. All of us were sick. Actually I need to correct that. We're all still sick, just not too sick to go to work and play.

No progress on the quilt. Though yesterday I got to stop at the quilt shop. I dropped off a prescription for The Boy and headed to the library to return overdue books (of course) and to fetch something for myself to read. I have no bedtime reading material and I'm starting to dream about Sudoku's. Well. The library was closed. At first I thought it was that damn library tax that didn't pass which consequently shortened their hours. Later The Husband pointed out it was probably for MLK day. Ok, I guess that is legit.

So. I needed to kill some time while simultaneously destressing from all of the crying and lamenting sickness brings to children. So I stopped at the shop. This time nobody was rude to me. In fact, nobody said a thing to me. I felt a little invisible but that was ok because I didn't intend to buy anything and not buying in a little shop that is probably hopeful for every single sale feels like taboo to me. But nothing caught my eye enough that I had to have it. So I browsed and then went back for The Boy's antibiotics. (Ear infection.)

But...I did go to JoAnn's and buy some fabric for recovering the chair seats on our kitchen dining set and for a small valence over the window. Nothing too big, it is the only source of natural light so it can't be too imposing. Just something to dress it up and bring the color scheme together. I cut the fabric for the seats but haven't stapled it. I have never used a staple gun before and since the kids were a bit clingy I didn't want to try to use it and end up stapling feet to the floor or something.

I should point out that I don't feel guilty about going to JoAnn's for this purchase. The quilt shop doesn't sell home-decorating weight fabrics. And I needed something that would stand up to the rigors of "young family" life.

So. I was just browsing some of my favorite blogs. I have no idea how I even found Loopie Chick's blog in the first place since I don't know her. But I was reading her blog and noticed that she has mentioned quite a bit about other knitting blogs. I am having the darndest time finding anything similar for quilters. What the heck? Are there no quilters out there blogging? Unfortunately All Too Quilty hasn't been updated in some time. I haven't found anything else good. Maybe I'm just not looking in the right places. Hmm.

Flower Quilt Update

I forgot to mention that the evening after I finished the old lady satchel I worked on The Girl's quilt. The border has a block in each corner and each block is made up of four smaller blocks separated by sashing. I finished all of the smaller blocks. Now they need to be connected to the sashing.

And The Boy is well enough to go to daycare today. He didn't have a fever this morning, though he is still coughing.

I would also like to report that I successfully completed a 5-star Sudoku from the Sudoku-a-day calendar The Husband got me for Christmas. Yes, I am addicted to those as well.

And today is haircut day! Hurray! I love it when someone else washes your hair. Except they can see up your nose, and I sometimes worry they may see some boogerage.

Happy Birthday to

Chalicat!!!!

Shortie

This is a short one since my lunch was compressed by a pesky business user. Well, she herself isn't pesky. I use the term loosely for people who want stuff from me.

Anyway. The Boy is still sick. The Husband stayed home with him today. I hope he doesn't pass it to anybody else. Poor little guy. Daycare called me yesterday and told me to come get him, and when he saw me he immediately began crying, clung to my legs and looked up at me. Then with that teary little voice said, 'Mommy, I throwed up.' I wanted to squeeze him back to health right then. Instead I took him to Marc's for children's Tylenol. Not because I didn't want to cure him, obviously, but because I can't.

And I have one of those annual exam type doctor appointments after work today. Not something to look forward to. Ugh. At least I am not as self concious as I used to be. Pushing out two kids in the presence of half a dozen or so people pretty much cures you of that.

Back to work. Have a nice day. La!

Isn't it romantic?

A lovely email The Husband sent me from work yesterday:


I love to touch your cheek
with feather kisses
to hear you speak
and I just listen
I love you.


Isn't that the sweetest thing? I made it red for Romance. And Valentine's day is still a month away! It's great when you get a huge rush of the new-love feeling.

Quiltin' Tuesday. Oh wait.

Well, it isn't Quilting Tuesday for me. I couldn't get myself together fast enough for that to come to be. But I did finish the purse. I wouldn't really call it a purse. It's more of an old lady satchel. I am really disappointed with it's dimensions. I guess I knew it was going to be pretty big, but I figured maybe it was my imagination. And I didn't want to try and alter the pattern without seeing how the original pattern worked. It is missing a button and that is what the loop is for. It turned out cute but not adorable cute. Hey, that only took me ten days and twenty bucks. We'll see if I ever get around to getting it a button. And to the side there you get a glimpse of the kitchen brown. I didn't include a picture of the kitchen since there are dirty dishes all over the place.

In other news The Boy is sick today. I really hope the end of January signals the end of most of the year's illnesses. I doubt it will.

Welcome to the work week.

Quilt update: nada. I haven't done a thing because I am obsessed with the purse. I have now developed sore joints in my hands though so once it is finished I will not be crocheting anything else for awhile. The mood will definitely have to strike to do anymore of that.

In other news, I think I am skipping the first quilters meeting of the year at the quilt shop tomorrow. I'm kinda bummed about it. For one thing, I have nothing to bring to work on. So I'd be sitting there looking like an idiot. Also The Husband would then be left with caring for The Kids three nights in a row in one week and we can't have that. I mean, sure, they are his kids too, but it's a lot to ask so that I can sit and look like an idiot. If I hadn't been so obsessed with the purse, maybe I could have ridden out the guilt. Oh well.

Not much else going on here. It was a lovely lazy weekend, complete with jammies for everyone until lunch time. It's just the way to go now that the holidays have crashed by.

That credit card is smokin'!

There is no better motivation to exercise than seeing yourself in a full-length mirror under shopping-mall lights. Gah. I look terrible! And I’m supposed to be slimming down for vacation. It of course didn’t help that the first thing I tried on was a pair of really low-rise pants that The Husband picked out. I didn’t even bother to come out of the changing room to show him. Why burn that image into his head?

But I did have some luck. I found a pair of passable khaki-type pants for work, and another pair of oh-so-soft velvet pants that I’ll probably also wear to work. And I found two button-down ¾ length shirts, and two camisoles. I am getting a little concerned though that I have so many shirts of the button-down style that you don’t tuck in. Am I in a rut?
Oh, and The Husband bought himself five pairs of pants/jeans.

So. This morning rolled my tubby tum out of bed and out for a jog. Must. Keep. Exercising.

Year end recap

Oh, and I forgot. Loopie Chick inspired me to list my crafty accomplishments from last year:

1. 2 infant-size ponchos
2. 1 toddler-size poncho
3. 1 adult-size poncho (for me!)
4. 1 gingerbread house
5. 1 infant baptism gown

Not an advertisement for hot dogs

The Girl is unfortunately sick today. She was, shall we say, expelling last night's dinner, most of the night. You guessed it. Hot dogs.

Anyway. I'm home with the kiddies, and not getting much done. It would have been a good day to quilt but I am still obsessed with the crocheted purse. I thought it would be done by now. I failed to factor in my inability to read instructions. I have one more piece to make before assembly can begin.

In other news, LogoAnn got a sewing machine for Christmas. I am all geek-sewing excited for her.

I guess I better go. The Girl is trying to take over the computer.

Crafty

It’s back to the grind today. At least this week is short, though. I think I’ll make it.

Updates on quilting. That should come first. I mean, this is a quilt blog, right? Anyway. I went to a local quilt shop on Friday after being released from work early for an “offsite” meeting. That roughly translates to going to a bar and drinking. But back to the story. I went to the local quilt shop. I actually like this shop a lot, and I’ve been there before, but the prices and the expertise of other shoppers generally spook me a little. Not this time. I decided I was going in there and asking my dumb questions and coming out armed with what I needed.

Except I got there at 3:50. They close at 4. They were not very subtle about pointing this out.

So under the pressing eye of the clerk who told me they were closing in ten minutes, I wandered quickly through the fabrics. I was looking for a back for The Girl’s quilt. Unfortunately I neglected to bring any swatches with me. I floundered. The clerk briskly tidied. I caved and picked out six fat quarters for The Boy’s upcoming quilt and scurried away. I did manage to ask if they have a quilting group that meets in their shop while paying for the quarters. She gave me a newsletter that details classes and meetings, etc. That was worth the trip. I couldn’t wait to read it.

They have a quilting meeting that is two hours long once a month where you just sit and quilt and chat. I think I may try it, even though I don’t know anybody. I t would really be nice to have a friend or two to chat quilts with. I know my friends will listen to my chatter about it, but sometimes you like to sit and be inspired by someone else’s chatter, too.

On Monday I decided to go back to the quilt shop. This time I took actual swatches, and I was ready to ask questions. I’ve been thinking that I’d like the back of the quilt to be flannel since The Girl likes soft things. I’ve never quilted with it and I don’t know how it holds up or anything, so I wanted to ask about it.

I made my way to the quilt fabric room and found the flannels. They are quite pretty, and very soft. I was worried though that they would get pills from use or get thin and worn. There was a clerk in the room busily ignoring me, and eventually I must have made enough perplexed faces and sighs that she asked me if she could help. I asked how they flannel wears, etc. and she actually seemed insulted. Insulted! Like I had asked about the moral fiber of her mother instead of whether flannel fabric will hold up to toddler usage.

“This is high quality fabric,” she said snootily. I then asked if it gets pills, as some fuzzy fabric does with use. “No,” she said, even more snootily than before, “this is not that cheap stuff you’ll see elsewhere.” Not cheap, indeed. It was $8.50 a yard.

Then I proceeded to ask her what she thinks of the color combination. She seemed a little annoyed by that, and even more annoyed that I admitted to not being crazy about the mauve color. Pretty much she told me to pick it myself. But wait! There is still another question. I need six yards. If there isn’t enough on the bolt, can I order it?

This clerk must have thought I just crawled out of some dark-age cave. “No,” she said, as if I obviously don’t know how quality fabric works, which I probably don’t, but why point it out, “once this company prints and sends out fabric, they move on to greener pastures.”

I maintain my total state of denial and pretend like she is being helpful while busying myself with a choice. I finally settle on a deep red flannel. There is just a smidgen more than six yards on the bolt. She kindly gives me the extra smidge without charge. I guess maybe she is kind of nice. Or maybe it was easier than breaking out the scissors.

So I purchase my fabric, then move on to the craft store. There I buy two skeins of Lion Thick & Quick chenille in (I sense a theme here) a beautiful deep red along with a set of purse handles. You guessed it—I’m thickening the plot by attempting to crochet myself a new purse.

Yesterday no quilt work got done, except the purchase of the backing. I spent the entire extra part of the afternoon working on the purse. You have got to mix it up some, you know? I am only about an hour away from being done, I think. Sometimes it helps to motivate you if you actually finish something, and it will be cute. And if it isn’t purse-worthy, I can use it to take my supplies to the quilt group. Hurrah!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a great New Year! May your 2006 be blessed with health, wealth, and happiness. As my husband's family says while toasting, 'clink clink!'