Happy Blogiversary to me!

Today is my third blogiversary. In honor of this momentous occasion I am having a quiltie giveaway. Hurray for free stuff! My local quilt shop is having a sale tomorrow and I am jumping on that train to bring you a little quiltie prize of my random (but tasteful?) choosing . Leave me a comment on this post by midnight December 5th EST to enter. You don't have to leave your email address but I do need a way to contact you - if that is your blogger profile where your email can be found or a blog where I can comment for you that is fine. I'll try to post a picture of the gift tomorrow or Sunday. Wait, today is Friday right? Right.

Because of the prohibitive costs of shipping the winner must reside in the United States or Canada.

Good luck!

Family news -- I survived hosting thanksgiving for 17 people (it was supposed to be 22) at my house for the very first time. Whew. I had a little turkey trouble which I was not expecting because I've roasted up a gobbler before. But it all turned out all right and I haven't gotten any irate 'your crummy food made me sick!' phone calls so I'll take that as a good sign. Or maybe they are too busy barfing to call...

Also everyone seems to think I have permanently volunteered to have it at my house...urm, ok....what?

Fitness news...well I'm on a temporary pit stop. Besides the fact that I hate jogging in snow, rain, cold, and dark, I had a million things to do to prepare for the festivities at my house this week. I intend to start right back up next week. Really. I mean it.

Quilting news...I have 6 of the starburst hand pieced blocks done. I had a goal to get 8 done this year, but I don't think I'm going to make that. I am working on making myself a winter coat. And you know what? It's freakin' cold here in Ohio so I've got to get that done. Don't worry, I do have a stand-in coat in the meantime. I got the binding sewn onto the front of The Girl's quilt which is a big step. I also took a machine trampunto class through one of my guilds and that was lots of fun. It required some machine quilting and I did a not too terrible job at that. Oh and I joined a Round Robin with my guild and I'm really excited about that. I have a design worked out in my head for the center and we'll see how that turns out. I am thinking I might use the machine trapunto method for part of it.

Some kind of blaster thingie giveaway...

My cousin would just love this...and I'm on the lookout for a toy that a 10-year old would love. I am pretty sure this is it. So if you are also looking for a toy for an older kid who has become somewhat hard to buy for, go for it!

Giveaway!

Frugal Upstate is giving away a Girl Gourmet Cupcake maker. The Girl would be so thrilled to get one of these for Christmas. Every time we see a commercial for one she says she is going to ask Santa for it. Cute!

In other news. I failed to tell you in my previous post - I successfully completed a Batgirl costume and a Captain Rex Clone Trooper costume for October. And I only have the buttons to go on The Girl's coat. I have to say that I am not very thrilled with how the coat turned out. She loves it though and that is all that counts.

Also. Due to the costume frenzy I fell off the Fit Wagon. Er, I am sure all of those snack-size halloween treats did not do me any favors either. But I did get in two (very short) jogs last week and will hopefully be resuming the at-least-three-times schedule this week. And over the weekend I raked leaves with an actual rake and used a steam cleaner on some of our carpet. And yes, I am sore today.

Sorry, no pics today. No matter your political leaning, get out and vote tomorrow! Our female ancestors worked hard to give us this privilege (um, if you are female) and we shouldn't forget that.

200th post winners chosen!!!

Since The Husband provided the question I let him go through the comments and choose his favorite answers. BTW, He never reads my blog so he doesn't know any of the commentators identities. Here they are:

Susan Cahill said...
What a tough question. Having an inquiring mind I did
some google searching and here is what I found:The Myth of Sunlight: Vampires
are creatures of the night, living and feeding in the darkness. In traditional
medieval times sunlight did not kill the vampire. In fact, vampires could walk
around like anyone else. In the novel, Dracula, vampires could move around in
the daytime without their strength and powers. It's only been in the recent
history of fifty or sixty years that the new tradition of Sunlight killing
vampires has emerged. Popular culture, movies and novels have made sunlight the
ultimate vampire killer. However, if you ever run into a real vampire don't be
surprised if they don't explode when sunlight hits them.So, it sounds like not
many, but who knows, maybe it just isn't reported and there are more than
reported! Boy, my brain hurts, I'd better go do some quilting.

And...

justusseven said...
I've heard vampires aren't all that organized so I bet the daylight savings time catches them off guard A LOT!

He liked Susan's for its historical content and Justusseven's for it's humor. Marisa almost got it for the humor but then he thought she herself might be a vampire since she was trying to convince him that vampires might be nearly extinct. Quote from The Husband: "She can't fool me! I'm on to that vampire."

Thank you for playing, everyone! Susan & JustUsSeven - watch your email. And congratulations!!!

200 posts!

Since this is post 200 I will be giving away two little somethings. Halloween is coming up and it is a favorite time of year for me. This was last year's costume:

Ok, Ok. That isn't really me. It's Elvira. And I know she sets women's lib back like 300 years but darnit, she is funny.

Oh right, back to the giveaway. Halloween is a special time of year for me, and since it happens to correspond to my 200th post I will be giving away two Halloween quilt gifties which I have yet to determine. I'm thinking a yard of Halloween fabric and some kind of cute pincushion for each at the moment. You know me - I am terrible at posting pics off of my camera so even if I had the giveaway items on hand I would be too lazy to post a picture.

Vampires make very good pin er, stake-cushions, no?

So here is how you could win a giftie. The Husband (that is not him above, btw) is fascinated with Vampires. He recently asked me this question: how many vampires get burned (er, literally) because they forget about daylight savings? You know, they climb out of their coffins for a night on the town and suddenly it's still light out at 8? All you have to do is give me a response to this query in my comments. I'll close out entries at end-of-day October 4th, and post the winners the following week.

Good luck, and happy vamping!

PS - postal costs being what they are, I'm restricting this to residents of the United States and Canada. Sorry to international folks, it's nothing personal. It's just too expensive especially after ponying up money for the prize.

One coat for The Boy - done!

I finished the wool winter coat I was making for The Boy this past Friday. Yippee skippee! (Does anyone else remember Miss Piggy saying that on the Muppet Babies cartoon?)

Isn't that special? (Another quote that dates me.)

Tonight it is super-windy at our house due to the weather moving North from Hanna or maybe Gustav. I've already lost track of which storm is to blame. The Husband's parents called a bit ago to say they had lost power. Our lights have flickered a few times but so far it's been nothing but an inconvenience as the Kiddies are scared of the wind. My heart goes out to all of those people who are displaced, lost, injured or worse because of the hurricanes. Sigh. It always has to be something, doesn't it?

Oh. Another thing. I have recently become hooked on Project Runway. What the heck. Why did it take me so long to get turned on to it? I like sewing, right? I guess it is mostly because we only have one television at our house (we're practically in the fifties! Though it is a color model with a remote control) and The Husband is most often dominating it. If I want to watch a show of my own, I have to tape them and watch when he isn't around. Then I eventually get sick of being so far behind because he's always around and I dump them without even watching them. But lo, The Husband actually watched it with me (I think he was trying to ring up some points--if you know what I mean) and proclaimed it to be "pretty cool"! So now I can watch it without guilt and without having to make up some crazy contorted television schedule.

I know. A normal person would just get another TV. I guess you don't know me very well if you think that I am normal.

In other news, The Girl started a ballet class and she is freakin' adorable about it. And we are trying very hard to convince The Boy that Indian Guides or Boy Scouts would be a fun thing to do. And keep my mom and uncle in your prayers - in a few weeks she will be heading to Seattle to donate something or other blood-related to her older brother who is suffering through his second bout of cancer. She donated um, something from her blood a few years ago when he went through his first round. He was eventually declared cancer-free but it has unfortunately made a return trip. I am sure I have been told exactly what the thing is that she is donating but since it is technical jargon and I am terrible with names--even names that are not associated with people--I won't even attempt to say it because I'm sure I'll say something crazy-impossible and folks will wonder what is wrong with me, or my uncle's doctors.

Oh! And this is my 199th post. Look for a giveaway when I do my 200th...which should be sometime this year. Oi.

Quilt giveaway!!!

Yes, you heard me right. Someone is giving away a quilt! Dana at Old Red Barn Co. is giving away a super-gorgeous quilt made from the Ginger Blossom line that Portabellopixie designed. It is really beautiful. Hop on over and enter!

May goals amended

This is our eggshell garden. The kiddies and I planted watermelon, cantelope, and some type of flower that I no longer recall. I can't wait to plant them outside!

Well I didn't do a very good job on my May goals list. So I'm going to amend it. Here is the actual list for May:

1. Quilt or sew 10 minutes a day


2. Finish the baby quilt


3. Sew 10 pillowcases for the guild service project


4. Create a sewing basket and little project book for my niece who is turning seven near Memorial Day.


5. Remove the binding from The Girl's quilt. Note the goal does not include rebinding!

Does anyone have any ideas about what is appropriate to put in a sewing basket for a 7 year old? I was thinking a measuring tape, a pin cushion, some pins, a packet of needles, maybe a thimble, some fabric glue, ??? What else? I wondered about scissors, I mean sewing scissors are so sharp...is that ok for a 7 year old?

Oh and Quilter's Buzz is doing a giveaway!!

Giveaway!!!

Sorry I hope that title isn't misleading. I'm not giving something away, but the Quilting Cowgirl is! Check out her blog and enter. Oh and Shelina is also giving something away, if you can catch her using the word she has challenged herself not to blog for a month.