The Girls

Lily was smiling....until I got the camera.  I was going to adjust the picture so you could see her face.  Nah.  WAH was all I found on that face.

She wouldn't hold still either.  See, still no smile.
Not so with Miss Megan, she loves having her picture taken.
We had the girls overnight and I think that had a lot to do with Lily's mood, neither of us slept well.  Megan slept with Steph and they both faired better.  

Spring's ever changing weather has sprung here in the northwest.  I was taking Steph to a friends [we haven't gotten around to getting her license yet] this afternoon and the weather went from sun to rain to hail and back to sun....and that was just while backing out the driveway!

Want to see a great sewing studio being set up?  Go here to see what Teresa is putting together!  Can't wait to see it featured in a magazine!

Today is...

Click here to read all about it.  

It is also our anniversary.  Dan and I have been married for thousands of years. We almost forgot. Course no one else remembered either. 

Variety Friday.....

if you say that fast, it almost rhymes.  Anyway.  This ring is one from my mothers late teen years.  One of her art teachers gave it to her.  It's a design by the jewelery artist Margaret De Patta  

Stephanie loves the ring and gets all sorts of compliments on it.
Trash.  I went through all the floppies we had pix on and downloaded them to the computer, before I can't find a floppy drive on the planet. 
Cost. The yellow highlighted area on the price tag, that the cat is sniffing, reads "41.26"....for the bit of plastic you see next to the box. {I paid less thanks to insurance} Don't you wish you had invented the damn thing?
This year in ceramics class, Stephanie is making plates because she wants a set of her own and because she loves this glaze. Cat approved.  The plate is made with a press thingie....have to get back to you on this one. [Click the link to see what the thingie is.]
Dye.  I dyed the clothesline for the bag I am crocheting.
Handle.  This is the start of the handle for the bag.  It may change.
Bag. Handle. Clothesline.
Cat.  I did a simple running stitch on the lines of the cat, that I traced from the picture I showed you a few days ago.  Ashley did this drawing long ago, the back of the paper says "1993" but I don't think that is correct.  I added this date anyway, and Ashley's initials.  This will be part of a quilt for her daughter.

She Passed!! She Can Graduate!

This young woman is my youngest, Stephanie, who graduates from High School in June.  She had to "present her portfolio" yesterday in order to graduate.  She did it!  She got 25 out of 28 possible points, and got kudos from the 2 teachers she was presenting to, for tying  her opening with her ending.

Her 'portfolio' was actually a binder with sample assignments in it.  She also took her laptop in to do a slide show of her pottery, some of the pix she took in Spain {last summer}, and the walls in her room {that she painted last summer after returning from Spain}.  She also talked about her love of math and wanting to go to college.  

She took new pictures of these pots she had made last year in school, and even though I have showed them here before, I am doing it again. The last 2 are actually teapots and do hold water and pour!

Afterwards, the teachers spent some time talking with Steph, and gave her some advice about college life, that they learned from their children.

Now for Spring Break!

Right Brain, Left Brain

Last night Stephanie and I were trying to find these pictures she drew in elementary school. She had the same teacher, Mr. Smith, in 4th and 6th grade.  He had the kids draw this picture both years.  Would you have looked at these 2 pix and guessed they were by the same child?  

The child happy in my right brain world.... 

Got Math, and left me for her Left Brain World. 
I wonder how it would look if I had her do one now?  

Ok, this has now been blogged so we can't lose the damn thing again!!!!!  Have I got the original pictures?  Sure.  Do I know where?  Absolutely Not!

Steph is putting together her "portfolio" for a presentation on Thursday. The seniors, high school, have to 'pass' this test in order to graduate. YIKES!

Wanna Play?

this is amazing.  a game board covered in seed beads!!!!!!!

New Windows!

Dan and Ben went to Bremerton and got the new windows for my corner!!  This is a picture I found online to show a picture. They won't match the rest of the house, since we have grids in the others, but they won't show from the front, so that's ok.  I guess they were in the area of Habitat For Humanity's ReStore, because they went there too and found a wall oven/ microwave combo for Ben.  We all hope it works!  The price, 65$, was certainly right. Wish we could have gotten the windows there.

I had Megan here to entertain me, so no sewing done yesterday, but I did get some crocheting done on the briteblanket.  The yellow, pink and orange piece I showed you a few days ago. And Megan got to mess with fabric squares; I got her a 'charm pack' off ebay. I hope to sew them together for a doll quilt....but we shall see.

From Blogland to You

Click on this link to get an amazing view of Barack Obamas inauguration!

You can zoom in on the picture, move around the area, etc.  I found this in blogland of course.  Tommy The Material Girl had the link from her blog.  I got to there by clicking on a link from this page, about a Gas Station covered in Quilts....I kid you not!  I found this link on Luana's blog, you know, the eQuilter website of amazing fabrics.

Yesterday, March 21st, was National Quilting Day, which I haven't found a fun link for yet.  Anyway, did you quilt yesterday? Not I said the fluffy older lady. I don't think I have managed to get any quilting done on this particular day, ever.  I hope I am wrong, but....I did do ONE quilt related thing, I checked the Google Main Page to see if Google had quilted their logo for the day.  Alas, no they did not. Did you see it few days ago...the Very Hungry Caterpillar was working his way through the letters, and Eric Carle did it himself for Goog!  {the link is for his museum!!}  Way cool!

An Award with strings

I was given this award by Christine, thank you C!, it's for, and I quote,  "The award seems to be for blogs you find warm and pleasant. I’ll post the rules here (below) in case you want to pass it on to deserving blogs on your list."

But there are strings attached....Rules!  You have to list 10 others, so it's really a chain letter in disguise.  I say thank you to Christine because I really thinks she likes me  {*smile*} and wants to give me this award, so in that light, I Accept This Award!

But I am not going to follow the rules.  I read many blogs who would 'fit the bill' on this award, but they aren't into chain letters either, so I won't 'pass' it on. 

Followers

So how come no one has added their mug to my mug shot box on the right??? I feel so....un-mugged......

New Knee

This handsome bit of metal and plastic is not a car part. It's a human body part. A new knee replacement part.*  My sister in law had one of these shiny things put in her left leg on Tuesday.  A total knee replacement, how cool is that?  Leslie is already up and walking on it, slowly, with a walker, and with help, but that's ok, she will be out and walking in no time.  She has been kneeding one of these for years!  Goooo Leslie!

*be glad, be VERY glad, I didn't show you the other version of this from Google.

Rocks, Roosters and other junk

Rocks.

I got this fabric quite a while ago, over a year at least, and decided to just quilt it as is, all in one piece.  Something wasn't right, or it would have been done ages ago.  The needle, the thread, the batt, the fabric itself,??????? Anyway, it's done and looks upside down. But we didn't think it would look that way until we hung it up.  Rats. Love the stick.
Rooster.
Needlepoint.  From a calendar 'kit'. Not completely finished, but that's ok, it's a "painted" canvas.  I will frame it anyway.  Like the green I painted the cardboard to go behind it???
Start of a blanket. Fingers included to show size.  Bernat Satin Soft...Soft Satin?  Something like that.  Soft and cozy!
Ashley's first cat drawing.  May even have been the only one. I love it, of course.  Am going to do it in embroidery, for a quilt, for her baby, of course. I haven't made a quilt for Lily yet either, but that is in the works too.

Kicking Babies

Not kicking babies as in, kick the baby, but kicking babies as in I got to feel granddaughter #3 kick, the one still in the oven. And I got to hold, hug, and smother-with-kisses granddaughters #1 and #2, those being Megan and Lily. Granddaughter #3's name is picked, but that may change, you just never know. 

My Chair

Has a footstool all it's own.  Ignore the fugly upholstery on the cushion, and gaze at the lovely yellow part.  Son Ben made that for me from the scraps he had after making a bunk bed for his girls. I tried to show how yellow it is and didn't succeed.  The cushion came with the chair, so I recovered it.  Pix later.
And this is the chair with a new cover tossed over it. Ben also made a frame for the stained glass you see a corner of. After varnishing it, I will take pix of that too.

Not Your Mamas Calgon

A friend of mine mentioned "Calgon, take me away",  then I came across this *picture, with attached color palette no less,  and I realized that Calgon has been modernized by the words Happy Place.  This Happy Place is in Australia, of course, but that's ok, I can still dream of it.....

I removed the picture because I did a bad thing by copy/pasting....but you can still see the lovely beach on Vicki W.'s blog via the link.

while wishing I could get there via this....I love road trips! We had to give up our RoadTripMobile when we had to buy this house. Ok. But. I haven't given up the dreams of owning another one, like this one that is for sale locally......
And this coil pot has nothing to do with the above, I just really like it.

*the link will take you to Vicki's blog, which will take you to Amy's blog, where the picture originally came from!

StoryBook Quilt

I mentioned this yesterday, I think.  A quilt made up of scenes/parts of a storybook.  The first quilt was part of a NestingRoundRobin, (i.e., do it at home on your own, don't send it out to others to work on, and the hostess picked the books.)  This one has different stories from the first, and they are stories that were read to the recipients when they were children. You should be able to guess 2 of the stories with out enlarging the picture....

The big cat, Wuggie Norple, is the orange stripe fabric I will hand applique.

Noddy is the picture on the right, not sure how I want to do him.

Max is printed on fabric.

Old Hat, New Hat will be applique also.

Harold is painted on the fabric that will be app'ed to the bg. He is an addition from my childhood, and his purple crayon will be used to spell out words and such on the quilt. {my "purple crayon" is  embroidery thread}

In the middle of the quilt is a couch with a boy climbing over to read with grandma, but now I need to add another little boy. This one is for my niece, her 2 sons, and her mum who is gray haired, like me. 

I also need to add another little girl to the quilt I  made for Megan, because she now has sister Lily!

Fly Dragon, Fly

This little dragon broke away from it's parent to fly free on it's own.  So ends the Saga Of YamDragon.

Seriously, the sprouting yam/sweet spud is losing it's appeal.  It's beginning to look like Vicky had something to do with it's livelihood.

I have been working on several projects, but no good photo ops for any of them at the moment.  The crochet pattern I was trying I kept messing up on, so I am re-winging that. I re-started another StoryBook quilt and making progress on that......I'll find the pix and post more on that. My Hoffman Challenge challenge is underneath the StoryBook quilt-workings, at the moment.  

Stephanie has been home with yet another aliment, including a white spot on her tonsil.  Megan had a tonsil moment,too, this last weekend.  She wasn't sick, she was just housing a golf ball in her throat. 

for good news~  Danny got to feel the baby move!! Ashley {and I} have been waiting for this, wanting so much for him to feel his daughter kicking.

And....the Sun has been shining for a few days now....and the days have been nice and LONGGGGGGGGGGG.  This is when I wake up smell the sunshine!

Pictures....

I was looking for something else in my Picasa albums and came across this shot of RocketMan. He was such a pretty ginger cat.  Well...except for the eye booger.

Hummmmmmm....copy/paste left us with half a face, but you can see the whole thing here.

Barbie. It's what's for dinner.

haha.  Barbie is 50 today.  A little younger than me.  I had one. Did you?

Things

I just love this cats furry design, not my cat, but a girl  can dream.
I found this here, it's a mobile of fish and coral, to{too? two? 2?}  awesome. I found it via here, via here.....see what a little link can do for ya?

Wings Are Growing

The Dragons wings are growing nicely.
Can you see the orange circles around the clawed feet?

Mama's Got A Brand New...

Chair?   yeeehhhhoowwwwwwwwww

Ok, James Brown I'm not.  But check out my new year!! <--- that should say "chair", not 'year', hohoho  Ben found it at the Goodwill for 35 bucks!  This is for my 'sun corner' in the bathroom.  Though it kinda takes up the whole corner, may have to break out a wall or 2....haha  Hopefully some time this year we will get a replacement window with clear panes, so I can see the sky, have daylight, and and and....well, we will see.  The chair is comfy, tho not much to look at.

I have been meaning to post this picture for ages...AGES I say!  I finally got it all put together with the fabric {thank you Karen} and the frame. I added a tiny strip of a goldish stripe fabric all around the leopard to bring out the color of the spots.  This is a pastel done by Stephanie in 6th grade.So...I was messing with the thread I showed off a few posts ago. It's not the greatest of fibers, so I thought I would try crocheting a skein.  Didn't do to badly, but the gold sparkle sure didn't come thru in the photo!  this might be an ornament, or not....

This is one of the 'cupcakes'....look at how close the close-up feature on my camera can get...you can see the fibers in the yarn...oh wait....that's just cat hair. Never mind.

this made me laugh....out loud

"Due to the ever increasing costs of fuel and electricity,
The light at the end of the tunnel will be cut off."

Found it on another blog, of course  who found it on someone else's blog, of  course.

Seems I Missed a Birthday

How could I have let this get by, 

oh my, I did not know, 

it's such a blow, 

to have this day of birth go past, here I am, 

just call me Last.

And who is this feline with a devils hat? 

I know not who, just thought it Phat.

Oh how sweet, a beanie on a cat, 

oh my but I love that hat.

The last 2 cats were not harmed in having their pictures taken in goofy hats.
I have to mention something about Dr. Seuss, afterall that's how I came up with my blog title.