daily life · stash busting

Weathering (or should that be feathering?) the Storm plus Stash Report


My stash report is short & sweet.  None new in, none new out.  I have continued to work on blocks for my One Block Wonder quilt.  That’s about all I’ve done quilty.  I haven’t even touched the longarm since I took my last customer quilt off.  Well, I have touched it, just haven’t turned it on…lol.  I have that king size quilt of my own all ready to go and just can’t get motivated.

Our blizzard brought much needed moisture to our area, and for that I am very grateful.  It did ruin the blooms on my magnolia bush, though. 😦   I’m not sure how the tulips will fare, but I suspect better than the magnolia.  So much of it is already melting away.

I thought I’d share a few pics I took of the birds that were seeking shelter on my patio, and congregating in my tree for food, during the blizzard.  There were finches, doves, red wing blackbirds, blue jays, sparrows, grackles, starlings, and something I didn’t recognize.

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During a time when they had flown back out and away from the patio, I slipped some seed out there in an old cat food bowl that was still out there on a bottom shelf.  When they came back, they had a nice surprise.

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These are eating seed that they had knocked out of the feeder.

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I tried to keep seed out for the, and the trees in my yard were full of birds most of the day.

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And you thought from the title that this was going to be about quilting, didn’t ya? 🙂

Snow is good for something else, besides moisture.  Snow ice cream!

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It was fun while it lasted, but now bring back Spring! Have a great week everybody!

daily life

More Snow, But The Skies Are Blue Now


I have family members wanting to see pics of our snow, so here ya go! This was a funny looking snow “sculpture” made by the blowing wind.

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This morning, it was more like a wall.

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Please ingnore the broken dishwasher on the patio.  It makes me think of “you might be a redneck if…”  That is my old one that we had to replace last weekend, and that is as far as my hubby has gotten with hauling it off.  It really won’t stay there forever. 🙂

Lulu says, “no, Mommy…I don’t wanna go outside…I just want to stay curled up right here on Daddy’s lap…I’m not going to help you get my sweater on.”

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How am I going to get out of here?

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Notice, it was no problem for Libby the “snow plow”.

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Drifts on the north side of the house.

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I cleared all the snow off of the hot tub about 7:00, last night, and this is how it looks this morning.

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Drifts on the south side of the house.

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I thought this looked neat, hanging off of the house.

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Where’s the sidewalk?

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I can see the water tower and the rest of town again.

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I’m not sure why my husband was laughing at me this morning…???

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What tulips?

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The tree across the street, and the tree next door look really pretty today.

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This is a huge drift in the front, south side of the yard.

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Between us and the neighbor to the north.

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And a couple snow close-ups. 🙂

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And that concludes this morning’s snow show!

daily life

Oh Yes, It Really Does Snow in Texas! :-)


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My snow plow!

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This one does NOT like it AT ALL!

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No, I didn’t fall down, I just had the camera at a weird angle…lol.

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I’ve been out a couple of times to fill up the bird feeders and it’s been quite a popular hangout for the neighborhood birds today.  I’ll be posting some pics of them over the next few days.

Also, I want to thank everyone for their prayers and thoughts, good wishes and advice offered about Greg’s upcoming ankle surgery! We appreciate it greatly!!

quilting

Current Conditions


Taken in my backyard.

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This pic is taken looking over my back fence.  I should be able to see a city water tower, and the football stadium, several buildings and houses beyond this field, that separates my neighborhood from the rest of town.  Can’t see any of them.

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My poor tulips.  I did not go into the office today.  They are announcing on the radio that the courthouse will have limited availability today, and the sheriff is saying please stay home if you can.

daily life

Waiting on the snow!


We are supposed to be hit with a blizzard, tonight til Saturday morning.  They have predicted as much as 17″ for my area.  We shall see!  The winds are supposed to blow something fierce, and it’s possible we could have power outages, so if I “disappear”, I prolly just don’t have electricity!

daily life

Update On Hubby’s Ankle


I mentioned an upcoming ankle fusion being a possibility for my husband a month or so ago.  Some of you have asked for updates, so I’m posting what I know so far.  We met with the doctor in Amarillo again today, and went over his bone scans.  The good news is that the arthritis is limited to the ankle joint only, leaving the rest of the joints in his foot unaffected.  That is a positive for the ankle fusion.  The fusion is really the only “fix” for his pain and discomfort, and will probably have better mobility after the fusion.  We are going to put it off til October, partly due to the fact that my husband’s work is typically busier in the summer, and he has a fishing tournament he really wants to go to in September.  We own a glass & tile business, and this will have him out of commission for quite awhile.  It’s going to be tough, no doubt about that, but I’m praying the long term benefits will outweigh all the hardship.  When he has the surgery, which is a day surgery, he will have to keep his ankle elevated, at head level or a little higher, for two full weeks, only allowed up to the bathroom.  No weight allowed on the ankle for at least 6 weeks after that, (or maybe including that two weeks-I’m not sure about that now) and then he will be allowed to start putting limited weight on it, depending on if the fusion “took” or not.  He said by the three month mark, he should feel better than he feels now, but it will take a full 9 to 12 months to heal completely.  In the meantime, he is taking Celebrex, and if he has a really bad spell, or some times he will be on his feet more, they said they can give him some cortisone injections.  He is to try wearing some lace up ankle boots to give it some more support, and ice it.  We sure aren’t looking forward to the process, but we are so hopeful about the end result.

fabric · one block wonder quilt · pretty fabric · quilt top · quilting · quilts

One Block Wondering


Ok, so I’ve told y’all that I’m supposed to take a One Block Wonder class with the quilt guild, but it isn’t til April 18th.  Who can wait that long, once they have the book already? Not me! I had to go ahead and do some playing.  I finally felt like fondling some fabric again, and instead of working on one of the gazillion projects I already have started, I wanted to do something new.  Maybe it’s spring fever.  Since we are doing the octagon version at guild, I pulled out the original fabric from my stash, that I wanted to use, but didn’t have enough for the eight repeats needed.  Since the hexagon version doesn’t use as much fabric, I have enough for it.

The fabric, with my new rotary cutter laying on it, just because I noticed that it matches…lol!

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The first set of blocks:

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This is so hard to stop working on, once you start.  Each block is a little surprise.  I can’t wait to see how the next row of blocks turns out, and how they look added into these.  Not only are the blocks a surprise, but you don’t know what the quilt will look like, either, till you get all the blocks together, and start playing with them.  Too much fun!

daily life · fabric · Mark Lipinski · quilting · stash busting

What Have I Been Doing?


It would seem that I’ve been really, really busy…given the obvious lack of blogging, but I don’t have much to show for where my time is going.  I have been being much more faithful about squeezing in some time on the Treadclimber, after I get home from work, before I prepare supper, and have lost ten lbs. since the first of the year.  I’m very happy about that, but I’m also where I was when I got stuck last year, and then discouraged.  I’m trying not to do that this year, no matter how slow it is coming off.

The dinner I am cooking tonight might not be conducive to weight loss.  Here it is before going in the oven.  Yum. I like some homemade pizza.

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I have been trying to prepare more of our meals in the evenings.  That eats up a chunk of my free time, along with the workout beforehand. It seems when I add a new activity, something else is sure to fall behind.  Right now, it’s the housework and quilting.  Isn’t is always the housework, though?  Dust…where does it all come from??

I have been doing some reading.  Even though I haven’t taken a single stitch in about a week, I’ve been reading about quilting.  My Quilter’s Home issue came, and my OBW book, for the upcoming class at guild.

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Mark has a pattern for a mini iron & crystal wand keeper, that I really want to try to make.  I’d like to make one larger, also, for my curling iron or flat iron.  There’s also a great scissor review in this issue.

I bought fabric for the OBW quilt.  I mentioned it in my last stash report, but here’s a pic.  I bought it from Knot & Bolts.  I think it will make a cool OBW.

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We aren’t supposed to start any of it til the class.  At the class we are doing the octagon version.  And once I break down and buy some new fabric, for any reason, that seems to be all it takes to get me started.  I will have confessions for this week’s stash report.  I bought another fabric that I thought would make a good OBW, but now that I have it in my possession, the pattern isn’t as large as I thought, so I’m doubtful that it will be successful, but I’m going to try it anyway.  And I’ll try the hexagon version with it.  I hope to work on it before I go to class.  After reading over the book yesterday, I was One Block Wondering in my dreams last night.

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And when I went to checkout, my cart told me I could get XX more yards for the same shipping price. (I’ll not tell how many yards til Sunday!) Well, I had already seen this cutie, and, promptly went back and added those XX yards of it to my cart!

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Love those funky little chickens!

I also read a book that I loved…Same Kind Of Different As Me.  I read it, then read it aloud for my DH.  He loved it, too.  It was a very emotional read, for me.

April will be an even busier month for me.  I have to travel to Austin, with my boss, for a few days, for the Texas Probation Association annual conference.  When I get home, I have some special company coming for the Easter weekend.  The next week, we are off to Lubbock for my son’s district golf tournament, and while we are there, my DH has an appointment with another doctor for his ankle.  Then, depending on how the team does at District, I could possibly be traveling back to Lubbock the next week, for regionals.  I am taking a short break from customer work, til my life slows back down a bit.  I have some quilts in queue, but they aren’t in my possession yet, and I think I will leave it that way til later in May, or possibly June. I haven’t even started the quilting on my 9P & Stripe quilt I have ready.  I have to find my limitations, and learn to work within them, or I might implode.

quilting

Technical Difficulties


This blogger is currently experiencing technical difficulties, most likely due to the recent “spring forward” time change.  She is finding the adjustment period especially challenging this year.  Hopefully, the situation will correct itself soon, and she will return to a more regular posting schedule.  Thank you for your patience. 🙂