Baby quilt Double Pinwheel

I finished this baby quilt BEFORE the baby is born! I can hardly believe it. I usually procrastinate and then have to stumble all over myself because the gift is late. I'm so proud of myself. This couple have 4 boys and have found out that the little one due in early January is going to have inside plumbing. That little girl will be so spoiled or else be the world's biggest tomboy. I had other ideas for this quilt when I was quilting but found out that the batik I used was in shorter supply in my stash than I had first thought. I like to make pieced bindings though so I worked out. Sometimes doing things out of necessity (bindings) is one of those things that work out so well that I use it all the time.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone is having a relaxing and fun day with those you love. Remember to reflect on the things, we, as Americans have to be thankful for. This past year has been a hard one for us. HRH's job was outsourced to India, I had to recently go back to work, things are tight, the stock market is down, we haven't seen our kids or grandkids for 6 months or more. But I still have so much to be thankful for. I have a warm house, enough food, friends, a job I like, freedom to worship as I please, a puppy I adore, plenty of fabric to make quilts when the notion strikes and you, my blog friends. GOD BLESS AMERICA.
We are having dinner with friends from church who are graciously hosting a dinner for us ORPHANS who don't have family close. I made a couple of desserts for the kids but all in all, no cooking. This is a first. I don't know how to act, not getting up in the wee hours to get that bird stuffed and in the oven, baking pies, washing and ironing linens. I kind of miss it!

Let em eat cake!

When I was a child I would hear people say this and I wondered what is "meat cake" I guess I wasn't too bright when I was little. I also wondered what end's meat was. I would hear people say they couldn't make end's meet. Maybe my family just mumbled. Oh and Seattle, I wondered who Attle was that everyone was going to see her. Mom had a friend named Attie and I guess that was close. Nobody went to see her though. What are some of the little things you remember like this??? I'd love to hear.

Looks crooked from the angle of the pic, but believe me, I used a level and it was dead on! I may be a bubble off center but my cakes aren't Well, I take that back, the next cake I post will be. My Wonky, Mad Hatter cake. This cake was for the bride, the wonky one was for the groom.

Wedding Cake I made last weekend

The wedding was great, the bride, lovely, everyone had a good time. I made another cake for her out of town reception, a Wonky, crooked, very colorful one that I will post later. We didn't go to that receptions so I am relying on others for those pics.

The hard part is over....I think.

Well, it was a busy weekend, a wedding, two wedding cakes, a giant salad, and lots of clean up.
I made the wedding cakes, (haven't got the camera emptied yet) and they turned out ok, I was real happy with the white one, but not so much with the colored wonky one. Just not my style for the most part. I also HATE working with rolled fondant. I may never do another one in fact. All in all, the day was great and the reception room beautiful. The bride and groom looked so happy. No problems except one and that wasn't a biggie.

I came home to a REALLY messy kitchen and I was too tired to do much cleaning so it waited until the next day. Then to make matters worse, I was cleaning cupboards out and spilled an entire bottle of cooking oil. Talk about the worse possible thing to spill. I could have cried. I cleaned that up and now I notice that it is tracked over more of the house. I don't like to work on Sundays and besides, it's my birthday so tomorrow I will tackle it.

Speaking of birthdays, this one has been hard. I didn't get a call from any of my kids. They aren't the gift giving doting kids anyway, but they usually call. Oh well, Sometimes my birthday falls on Thanksgiving and that's probably what they think this year too. It has made me a wee bit weepy today though. HRH never does make holidays a big deal so it was a pretty uneventful day.
See you all tomorrow, maybe with cake pictures.

Insomnia and weight loss (not related)

I have had insomnia forever, but at certain times, like stress, overwork, pain, etc. it gets worse. Well, several friends have mentioned taking Melatonin, so last night I stopped by the local Walgreens and bought some. I waited until 30 minutes before I went to bed and took 3mg. as suggested. I was so sleepy and fell asleep within a half hour. All good, you say.... until 3 hours later when I woke up all red and itchy on every square inch of my body. I was miserable. I finally poked around in the medicine cabinet and found a very old bottle of benadryl. One hour later, I stop itching and was able to get back to sleep. I actually got 5 hours of sleep before my alarm went off and I had to go to work. I'm wondering now if I should cut the dosage in half and try again on a night when I don't have to get up so early or just ditch the whole idea. The jury is still out! Tomorrow, I have to make frosting and finish baking and decorating my two wedding cakes for Friday AM. Then I can rest. Oh, I do have to work out though because I have to loose at least 50 pounds by Saturday when I renew my drivers license so I will be the weight it says on my license. You think I can do it?

What a week

And it's only Tuesday! I have worked two days this week and I just love the place I'm working. I worked in the Alzheimer's building today and what a beautiful place. The people are happy, the staff busy spending time with the residents, They families happy. I have worked in some form of long term care most of my working life (if I tell you how many years, You will never believe that I am only 29) Oh well, forget my 40 year old son! Anyway, if it wasn't for the 75 mile round trip drive, everything would be perfect. I love my job SO FAR anyway. I work one more day then get busy making 2 wedding cakes and attending a wedding! Then I will nap away the weekend probably. I'm not in shape yet.
this is just a peek at one of the cakes I did this past year. HRH, took a pic of it before I had turned it around, so you get a peek at the ribbon where it was joined. Didn't look that bad from the front!

Back to work!

Well, after being "retired" for two years, I went back to work. (HRH was laid off from Nike and his job sent to India 5 months ago)
I got a job a retirement/long term care community as their move-in coordinator (MIC) to work 3 days a week while the MICs in the 4 buildings have their days off. I have done nearly every job in this business except direct caregiving and housekeeping, including administrator, which I hated, by the way, so the type of work isn't new, only the place. This job will entail giving tours, making call backs and other marketing duties. Today the first building I will be training in had a community function, a Bazzar with 80 vendors, yes, it is a very large place. The place was quite busy as you can guess, tables everywhere and I greeted people at the door with shopping bags and hello's. It was really quite fun, but OH standing in one spot for nearly 4 hours almost killed me. My legs, feet, back...all hurting. I came home and announced to The King of the Castle that if we were eating dinner, he must be cooking. Well, true to form, he came through,
WITH PIZZA. I had a thin crust veggie with artichoke hearts, yummy! He had a double stuffed 4 meat something. It will be dinner tomorrow as well and maybe Sunday. I may recuperate by Monday!!! I feel ten or twenty years older than my age tonight and am off to bed. I have two wedding cakes to make next week plus working. Pray that I make it!

Gratitude

Friends
work
quilts

The politicians did it!

I just walked past a mirror on my way from the shower and was almost frightened to death. Not only is global warming becoming a major problem, but gravity is somehow causing problems it didn't used to! I noticed that my body parts aren't where they used to be. HORROR OF HORRORS. My body is falling. Some of the parts that used to be symmetrical and all in the correct places are now inches lower than before. I wonder if it has to do with this past election. You know how politicians are. They cause all kinds of havoc in this world. It was probably someone who didn't like Sara Palin and wanted to put a curse on all women, yes, I'll bet that is what it is. Now I need a suck and tuck, You know liposuction and tuck it all! I'd hate to see the scars of that one. I'd look like Frankenstein, with stitches EVERYWHERE!
I'm doing you all a favor and not sending pictures.

She's at it again

This cat is always into something. I was cleaning out files, getting a jump on my usual first of the year job and came back in the room after a break to this scene. She was just helping, I'm sure. The next thing she did was run over to the desk and grab my pigma pen and run off with it in her mouth. I sure have gotten a lot tidier with her around because anything left out is fair game. I still haven't found one earring and an antique ring I left on my nightstand.

More Fall Colors

It looks like God sent Charles Russell out with a paintbrush!

West Coast Color

I used to think that you people on the East Coast had it over us "West Coast" folks when it came to color, but this year is just spectacular! I talked HRH into a drive yesterday to take pictures of some of my favorite trees in and around my neighborhood. Aren't they wonderful! I had an occasion to drive along the Columbia River last week and the trees reflecting in the river were very beautiful also but I didn't have my camera with me. Enjoy! It has been raining off and on all day today and our tree in the front yard is "empty" of all of it's puny leaves. The maple in the back has made a carpet on the brick patio though. More still in the tree.

Soap Project

I have been making soap for the past few weeks off and on. I have a big order for a friend and had to get it cured and shipped by the first of Dec. I sure smells good around here, even if it looks a bit messy with the extra tables up and the soap lined up like dominoes with the fan on them. I made vanilla, tea tree, green tea, spicy plum (HRH's favorite), oatmeal spice (smells like my grandma's cookies), mint, sandalwood, pear berry, christmas spice and maybe a few more. This soap is so great for your skin. I started making it years ago when my son was allergic to every kind of soap there was. I tried to get HRH to use it for the longest while until he ran out of his zest or whatever he used and reached for mine. WOW, he says," this stuff is great, why didn't you tell me" I did, says I, hundreds of times. Well, needless to say, he's been my biggest fan ever since. MEN!

This is how the soap looks before it gets cut into bars.