A couple of friends and I went to the farm store and got baby chicks. They are so cute and one day will supply us with lovely eggs. Now they are under a heat lamp in the garage. I got a variety of 6 and the Rhode Island red on will be called Luci, after Lucille Ball, the yellow one, I think will be Greta Garbo, the black ones, well, I'm stumped. They are (1)Barred Rock, (2)Silver laced Wyandott, both are black and white speckled. The other one is just plain black. Anyone out there care to help me name them?

We had chickens that came with the house when we bought it 6 years ago and I just loved collecting the eggs every morning. It was like Easter as a kid, all over again! When we got Maggie, we had three left and thought the dog would probably eat them, so gave them to a neighbor. Well, Maggie is a gentle soul and minds so well that all we have to say is NO to her and she will leave them alone, so we are in the egg business again so to speak. I bake a lot and the eggs are so much nicer than store bought ones.

New Chicks in the neighborhood

Easing into the 21st century

Our son visited and ushered me into the 21st century with my phone and computers. He hooked up my wireless network that I didn't realize I had. I knew we got the router, but thought it wasn't hooked up right because of course, it wasn't working for me. He also got my phone and car talking to each other and the blue tooth working, as well as getting my phone camera and my Mac on speaking terms. I wish he lived closer as I need him around about one day a week at least. . So even though things are working, I didn't get them posted correctly. I finally got the beach pictures uploaded in the last post, even though I had intended them to be in this one. Is there any hope for me? Don't answer that! I will whow the lovely sea food dinner we had though.

This son is in the Air Force and is stationed in Florida, soon to be going to So. Korea for a year. His family will have to stay in FL. He has been in for 22 years so far? He had to be at the airport this morning at 5:00 A.M. for his trip home. We will sure miss him.

We ate meals out a lot this week as we wanted to show Jeff a few of our favorite restaurants. Rib City was the favorite! I have never liked ribs because of eating with my fingers, but I make an exception for this one! YUM!

Beautiful day at the coast.

Imagine the lovely pictures of our trip to the coast last weekend. The computer keeps saying that I don't have enough power and to plug it into the usb port. DUH! That is where it is plugged into.We went with our friends and stayed at a great place. We were just a short walk to the beach and could see and hear the surf from our rooms. The four of us had two meals in our rooms, I cooked breakfast one day, Peggy cooked the dinner the following day and the rest of the time we ate out. We went to the Maritime museum and visited an old lighthouse ship and the guys visited a coastguard ship. I wasn't too interested in that. Later in the evening we played a card game called Malice and Spite. It was fun and I think I need to pick up one for us. We topped in off with visits to two quilt shops. I picked up a few 1/3 yard pieces for projects I am collecting fabric for. All in all, a great weekend for everyone. My son watched Maggie and Heidi and they were glad to see us home and were no worse for the wear.

This was my Saturday to work so not much fun going on. Yesterday I cut out 4 pillowcases I am going to make for nieces and nephews. I like to send them things for no reason or season. I think they like getting little treats "out of the blue". I'm also cutting 1.5" squares from scraps that will get used in little 9 patches for my leader/ender project. I have the entire kitchen island covered with fabric, what a mess! I had to leave it there and go to work too, and I'm too beat tonight to do anything about it. Maybe tomorrow after church. Funny thing, messes don't go away, they always wait patiently for you, don't they?

HRH "cooked" dinner tonight, we had pizza. That's the only way he "cooks". Papa Murphy pizza to bake at home. I wasn't complaining I was too tired to fix anything at all, and I love the chicken and artichoke on thin crust, Yummy. In fact, I sat down in the recliner to read the mail and fell asleep while waiting for him to go get the pizza. For some reason, unknown to me, I haven't been sleeping very well at night so I'm tired earlier than usual.

I found this little joke and thought it was cute. Enjoy and have a great weekend.

A Montana senior citizen drove his brand new Corvette convertible out of the dealership. Taking off down the road, he pushed it to 80 mph, enjoying the wind blowing through what little hair he had left. "Amazing," he thought as he flew down I-90, pushing the pedal even more.

Looking in his rear view mirror, he saw a Montana State Trooper, blue lights flashing and siren blaring.
He floored it to 100 mph, then 110, then 120. Suddenly he thought, "What am I doing? I'm too old for this!" and pulled over to await the trooper's arrival.

Pulling in behind him, the trooper got out of his vehicle and walked up to the Corvette. He looked at his watch, then said, "Sir, my shift ends in 30 minutes. Today is Friday. If you can give me a new reason for speeding--a reason I've never before heard -- I'll let you go."

The old gentleman then said: "Three years ago, my wife ran off with a Montana State Trooper. I thought you were bringing her back.

"Have a good day, Sir," replied the trooper.

Lost in nothingness

I have been such a bad blogger lately, I don't know why, but I have had a bit of the blahs. I'm not sick, just no motivation at all. Yesterday before going to work, I cut out a bunch of hexagons to make another I Spy baby quilt. I had just barely enough 6" children's conversation prints to make the 63 hexies I needed. I'm sure if I looked in the closet I would find plenty of yardage that would work, but I wanted to have each one different, so this works. I figure if I just make myself do something in the quilty department, my mojo will return.

Yesterday I got in the car to go to work and everything that was in the glove box and console was scattered all over the car. I had been robbed! Someone broke into my car and went through everything. I don't keep much of value in my car, but I did have a coin purse with about $15.00-$20.00 of quarters in there. Of course, they aren't there anymore. What a mess! I was pleased to see that the registration and insurance papers were not touched. I have keyless entry and sometimes when you walk past the car with keys on you, it beeps and the door unlocks. I think that is what happened when HRH came home from work the night before, because I am always careful about locking my car! So... I have the police coming this morning to make the report. Doesn't it just fry you that there is always someone out there who would take rather than work for what they want! Aarrgg!

What I have been doing

I haven't felt too creative lately so I have been making cushions to take to the animal shelter. I was given some used drapes by someone who thought I could use the fabric for quilts, but I wasn't too sure of the content and frankly, didn't really like it much. The dark fabric was the lining and was pretty faded, but when I used the back, it was fine. HRH had found a few, well, many, bags of fiber fill in the garage that someone also gave me to use in quilts thinking it was batting. I had plenty of that and fabric bits that I trim and put in an old crock until I get enough I use them for dog beds too. So I accomplished a few things, cleaned up things I don't need. made HRH happy to get the stuff out of the garage and I'm sure the pets at the shelter will be happy and at 18 degrees F today perhaps a little warmer.

We are about as boring as a cabbage most of the time and New Year's Eve is one where we really shine in the boring department. We will probably watch movies and maybe see the new year in, probably not. I figure it won't look much different the next day. I hope it has been a good year for you and that 2011 will be even better.

Happy New Year

Carline

One more in the can..so to speak

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas. Ours...well, it was just the two of us and we only heard from one of our three sons which was rather disappointing but I have to suck it up and go on. We had a nice ham dinner and watched Marley and Me and both HRH and I cried like babies at the ending. I read the book, but forgot how sad it was and Maggie laying with her head on my lap, didn't help. It was nice to have a quiet day actually. No mad dash to clean and get ready for a big dinner or get the packages wrapped. We just rested, read and watched Christmas movies after Marley.

Speaking of HRH, he got me a new Droid phone for Christmas and I am having quite a time even making a phone call. Steep learning curve. I have always said "I don't want to do anything with my phone but make or take calls" Someone wasn't listening! I haven't had my number switched yet so until tomorrow, I can still use my old one. I will make a trip in to the Verizon store then and hopefully have the nice young man teach me how to use this and perhaps I can even talk them into showing me how to hook up my built in blue tooth in my car. To be helpful, hubby had the store load all of his 233 phone numbers into my phone. I don't want his choice of numbers and will have the nice man at the store remove them too. I'm not quite sure why he thought that would be helpful to me. Oh Well. I did find out how to text so my grandson and I can communicate!

Truth be known, I'd much rather use my time learning a new quilting technique.

I'm not setting resolutions this year but will have a few goals to shoot for. How about you?

Baby gift finished

I finally finished an afghan I have been working on for a long while. I like to have something to do with my hands when I'm sitting watching TV. This is a checkerboard pattern and made with the softest of yarns. A young mom at church had a new baby and had also lost her mom this past year so I wanted to do something special for her and didn't have the time to make a quilt. I hope she likes it. I took it to her and she wanted to wait until Christmas to open it. A lady at the Assisted Living Facility where I used to work showed me this pattern, just alternate 5 stitches of knit, and 5 purls by 5 rows, then purl on the knit and knit on the purl for 5 more rows. Really fast and you can make any number of rows if you want the checkerboards a little bigger. I don't knit very often so like something simple. I have a book of knit stitches that shows squares of each pattern, I think they are 18" finished. Then you sew or knit them together to make a sampler quilt of sorts. I may tackle this in the new year, but I'm not sure yet.

I hope all of you have a very Merry Christmas. Enjoy your families if they are close. Ours are not so we are by ourselves on Christmas. We are having a couple of orphans (neighbors) over for Christmas Eve for dinner and that is about it for the celebrating.

Baking like a mad women

I have been baking for days and the kitchen looks like it too...what a mess! I hope to finish up today and get my cookie plates made up for friends and neighbors. I love to bake and at this time of year I have a good reason. Usually I just bake and HRH eats it or I share with an elderly couple I know, this time the sharing goes a bit farther.

I made this pie for a Christmas party at church and it went like wildfire. I even saw an older man using a spoon to get the last of it out of the pan and it was just scraps. I love coconut cream pie, just like my dad did and because I am trying to lose weight (down 30 pounds), I didn't do anything but taste the filling when I was making it.

I have made about 5 or 6 batches of cookies which include: chocolate crinkles, thumbprint cookies with raspberry jam from our garden. (Actually only the raspberries are from the garden, I only wish I could go out and pick jars of jam already made). I also made butterscotch pecan cookies which I still have to frost, maple coconut bars and some little fussy ones dipped in chocolate and chopped nuts. In the middle of all this HRH wanted to make something for his company potluck, he wanted baked beans, so I coached him and he made the biggest pot of baked beans I have ever seen and only about half of them fit in my large crockpot. I found beans splashed everywhere, even on my toaster oven which is beside the stove. I'm glad he doesn't cook but once a year, my kitchen would never make it out in one piece.

All in all, it's been fun but I will be glad to get the kitchen back in some kind of order.

I hope you are all having fun and not too stressed out preparing for Christmas. Enjoy and remember the reason for the season.

Latest project

This has been a year long project with a local quilt shop, Quilting Delights. We made several blocks per month and the large center medallion, called dream catcher was a single month block. The fabrics were Hoffman Batiks although they don't show well in this picture. The quilt is 107" sq. and I had to wait until I had company to get help taking a picture and as you can see, it isn't a very good one. There was no place to lay it out and it was too big for us to hold up high enough. I didn't notice the bottom corner until I uploaded and saw it...too late to retake. Oh Well, you can see enough. I am glad to say that the top is finished and I will have it machine quilted after the holidays. I want custom work done and I know it won't be cheap! I worked too hard on it to use a panto as there are lots of beige background that will lend itself to some nice feathers or something of the sort. I got the name of a good machine quilter from my bosses wife as I have seen the work of a few wall hangings in the clinic. I promise to get a better picture when it is finished.

The kick off

I kicked off the Christmas season with an ornament exchange party that I was invited to. We were all asked to bring a snack food and a wrapped ornament. We drew numbers and opened one at a time. After the first one was opened, we could either open another one when our number came up or steal one of the others that had already been opened. I brought the silliest glass cow that had a tutu on made of soft marabou feathers. We all got a laugh out of that and it was quite a popular "steal" item. We had a lot of fun and I didn't eat too much. I'm still losing weight even with Thanksgiving.

This weekend was a weekend of must do's I finished my giant block of the month quilt top and got the binding done, I altered a skirt and pair of pants to keep up with my aforementioned weight loss, I sewed down the binding on a friend's quilt since she hates to do that and I finished a fleece quilt for another friend who was struggling with it on an ancient machine. THEN, I did my least favorite thing to do and that is yard work. I trimmed 24 roses, raked leaves and put down 8 garden wagon loads of bark. I was one sore puppy this morning and noticed a few muscles I wasn't aware that I had (and wish I didn't at this point). I actually worked for 3 hours without stopping and felt like I really accomplished something. Back to work tomorrow so I can rest!

The Saturday highlight was the televised football game between the University of Oregon and Oregon State. I went to OSU, but lived in Eugene where the U of O is for most of my life,and our son went to the U of O. So it was a great game for both HRH and me. I always root for OSU, but U of O had a chance at the championship so I was kind of glad they won. (don't tell hubby though).

I hope all of you are gearing up but still leaving room to enjoy Christmas and to remember why we celebrate. Slow down and enjoy it.

Remember when your skin was too tight to do anything fun with?

Isn't this a hoot. I got this card and many others for my birthday this week. I got to celebrate not only my birthday, but Thanksgiving as well. When I was a kid I usually didn't have a birthday cake, but someone would stick candles in a pumpkin pie and call it good. I DID have a wonderful bakery cake on my 10th birthday and I remember a sheet cake with a small doll standing in the top left corner. I have remembered that cake for many years. I also had a 40th cake. This year since I am on weight watchers, I was glad for no cake. HRH did get me a wonderful new large cutting mat though and I love it. I had my old one on the kitchen island and he just slipped the new one over it and waited for me to notice. What I did notice right away was the smell. It had a slight skunky smell and I looked everywhere to see if that darned cat had brought a skunk in. It really wasn't strong enough for that so I kept looking, then I noticed markings on the mat that my old one didn't have and sure enough, that was the smell. I remember now that my old one (15 plus years old) smelled funny when I got it. I have to be glad that I made that one last so long. It had started cracking on the edges and even gorilla glue didn't work and the lines were non existent in places.

My co-workers also gave me lovely gifts, a plant I had been admiring on our walks and hand and foot cream, flavored olive oil for dipping and a plate of yummy brownies that I had a bite of and shared the rest with HRH which pleased him.

Thanksgiving was nice, just our grandson and his dad and his girlfriend and I even had help from hubby doing dishes. I am so thankful for friends and family and the temporal blessings we have been afforded. I am thankful for religious freedom and the other blessings living in this country have allowed me. How about you? What are you thankful for?

Happy birthday baby

Our new great nephew was born today and is a little one! 6.# 19.5 inches. Proud parents were at the hospital when he was born and are staying there tonight, feeding and holding him. We aren't sure when the adoption papers will be signed and they will be allowed to take him back home, but I pray everything goes ok with that. They met the mother and it looks ok.

This quilt was so much fun to make, I'm sorry the picture is so bad, you can't see the fun conversation prints and can hardly make out the star points. We had to run outside between rain showers (downpour really) to get the picture. If you look at the top left of the quilt and see that second row bright blue hexagon, you can kind of see the star that surrounds it. Now to get a label on it and get it sent to Alaska.

Weight Loss

I've been on Weight Watchers now for 5 weeks and lost 6 pounds. I'm having a fairly easy time of it except I usually have points left in the evening when I really don't want to eat anymore. I save them all day it seems so I can have a decent dinner. I need to balance it out a bit more. I was thinking that 6 pounds was nothing then when HRH and I were at the grocery store, I started looking for things that weighed about 6 pounds. I picked up 2 chickens and kind of held one in each hand at chest height and said "what do you think"? I didn't notice the man across from me looking kind of funny at me over his glasses. Yep two chickens were just over 6 pounds. Then I went to the butter isle and two of those big tubs of soft margarine and one small one came to 6 pounds and that really looked and felt like a lot. Then I picked up 6 pounds of butter and showed them to hubby at the same time that I dropped all 6 cartons of butter, then I looked up and the same man was staring at me, he then said, What are you trying to do, butter him up? I tried to explain that I was trying to visualize what 6 pounds would look like. Hubby was rather embarrassed to be with me then told me I was bouncing the items in front of my boobs and it did look rather funny. OK enough, until I got home and saw a brick laying loose and holding some plastic down. "How much do you think this brick weighs, I asked"? He just shook his head and went in the house. Anyway, I don't feel so bad at only losing 6 pounds, it looks like a lot when it's in butter or fleshy chickens.

I had a busy week, sewing (the favorite part), cleaning, running errands, working, visiting a sick friend in a nursing home, reading, cooking. Whew! Sometimes at the end of a week, I look around me and it seems like I haven't accomplished a thing. In looking back over the week, however, there are lots of things I can check off my "list".

I picked up my I Spy quilt from the quilter (I'll post later when I can get HRH to hold it while I take a pic). I really like how it turned out and want to make another one. I have enough conversation prints to do another and can also see that one made in softer colors, like perhaps 30's prints with greens for the star points.

I had my last quilt block of the month ($5.0o quilt) class. This month we had 8 setting blocks to make and they were boring to make. Again, picture to follow. Now I have to get this quilt together as there will be a drawing for a sewing machine for all the finished quilts. Talk about incentive to finish! Yup, I will make it. It has a large center block and 36 other blocks. This is the quilt that I showed blocks in a prior blog.

Now, on to the other fun thing I got to do. A small, quilt show. A friend called me from a quilt show and said, "you've got to get down here". So being a good friend, I got in the car and was glad I did. It was a small show, but a good one. Here are a few of the quilts featured. I would like to make one of those Christmas Tree quilts, does anyone have clues as to the pattern and availability?

A finish!

I love Fall and the colors and crisp days. I decided this year to finish a quilt from a block swap I did over 6 years ago. It was quick and although some of the blocks weren't perfect and a few of the points were cut off in seam allowances, I figured that the love that went into a friend's swap made up for it.

I have about 12 blocks left and am not sure what they will become yet. A table runner, a lap quilt, a twin sized quilt if I use sashings. Who knows? This past year I have really been trying to finish a few of those UFO's that have been languishing in pretty boxes. I get those photo type boxes, only larger, and put all of my UFO's in them and label them so I know what is inside. At least I know where they are and can pick one and work on it when I have time. It's made a difference in them getting lost and never finished or perhaps getting some Sew time after all.

Not too exciting

It's been pretty dull around here this last few weeks, but sometimes, dull is ok. I am enjoying the fall colors, (it's my favorite season) The days are in the high 60's, low 70's and the nights are cool.

I have been doing mundane things like grocery shopping, cleaning, laundry and working. While I was in Costco yesterday, I became really annoyed to people standing in the middle of the isles talking on cell phones, or walking, trying to push a basket, talk on a phone and choose an item. It didn't happen once, but many times. COME ON PEOPLE! I have answered the phone in the store too and from now on, I will wait if there are a lot of people around. People usually talk so loud, you'd think they were on a can and string and some of the conversations (most) I don't want to hear. Ok, I've had my rant.

I think the reason I'm a bit crabby is that I've started Weight Watchers and food is no longer used to soothe the moods! Do any of you find that you do that. I weighed in for my third time and have lost 4 lbs. I know it's not much, but I got 4 packages of margarine out and hefted them and it's significant. I think I've lost in my fingers and wrists and face though. I have the biggest (other parts) and I lose in my fingers. GEECH! I guess I will eventually lose in the important parts, but for now fingers will have to do. I work them to the bone, it might as well look like it.

Make it a great day.

I spy top finished

I finished the top of the I Spy quilt last night. It was hard to decide what to use because the quilt itself is so very busy. I decided to frame it with a 1/2 " border, then just use the same red as the star points. It was a real fun quilt to make. I had planned on going to Fabric Depot in Portland today because they are having a 35% off sale of quilting fabrics, but I went online instead and found a red children's print and ordered it. That freed up a day for me.

I have to work tomorrow as it's my Saturday to work. I don't know why I hate it so when I only have to work every other one, but I always dread it. I need an attitude change, I think.

I Spy

I am making a baby quilt for our nephew's expected adoption in November. They are having a boy and are so thrilled. This quilt is so much fun to make. First, I collected conversation prints for over two years, all children's prints. Then cut the 6" pieces into hexigons 1st picture. Then cut and sew triangles to 2 of the sides of the hexigons. The next step is to sew them into rows. Then the rows are sewn together, stars form from the red triangles. This is as far as I've gotten, but I will post another picture soon of the top. There are so many different things for a toddler to FIND in the quilt that as they get a little older it makes it a fun game too. I think I will make more than one of these as last week at a women's meeting at church, we had a give and take table and someone had aKeepsake Quilting packet of children's conversation squares. I thought they were put there just for me so Hello quilt 2.

We had a glorious day weatherwise, yesterday and HRH got a lot of yard work done. Our front yard is almost finished. Today, however it is raining cats and dogs. So a good book and quilting after church is in order.

Why these are in the wrong order, I don't know, but I couldn't seem to get them changed. You get the picture though.