Promised Photos

Hi all! It has been busy around here, so it has taken me a few days to get around to posting some of the photos from the quilt show I attended last week. Also, I have had some severe joint pain for about 5 days and it was hard to type much. I get it about once or twice a year - went to a Dr. a few years ago, and he tested me for everything under the sun. When all of the test came back negative, he said it must be a virus that manifests itself in my joints. So when the pains arrive, I just sit back and wait for it to run it's course.

We took The Baby to Pittsburgh on Friday. She was there to hang out with a couple of her college peeps and do some serious shopping. One of freinds will be attending her Sophomore year in Ireland, so they wanted to have a get together before the school year started. They had a blast! The Baby slept most of the car ride home on Sunday. She woke up Monday morning feeling sick to her stomach but with no fever. She had to go to work, so I decided to drive her. She works an hour away from home, so I was on the road a good part of the day! No matter, I would have worried if she would have had to drive herself. I have never minded driving her any place she has wanted to go, it is a great time to catch up with what is going on in life!



On to the photos!! The first quilt is my favorite. I wish the colors and the pattern came out better. I took a class from the lady who made the quilt and after the class she showed some of her work. This quilt was one of the quilts she showed. She created the design for her daughter as a wedding quilt. She asked her daughter what kind of quilt she wanted and her daughter said a traditional wedding ring with a modern twist. This is what Fran came up with. All of the material is Batik. The sun flowers are her daughter's favorites. I would die and go to heaven if someone made something this beautiful for me!



This was one of Big's favorite quilts. She loved the bright colors in it.



I thought this wall hanging was cute - I love me some chickens!



I have always wanted to make a log cabin quilt. I thought the simplicity of the black, white and red was stunning.

Of course there are many more photos and I will be posting more over the next few days. Just wanted to give you all a taste! I have been working in the yard and getting the house cleaned since it was neglected over the weekend. I have also been making flowers to adorn The Baby's head and a shirt or two she brought back from Pittsburgh. I will post about them later or tomorrow. I am off now to get in my sewing room and get busy!

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Quilt Show

I am pooped tonight, so it will be a short post. Just wanted to let you all know how much I enjoyed the Quilt Show today. I think my mouth was hanging open most of the morning. There were some really beautiful quilts. Picked up a few goodies from the vendors and almost got a new sewing machine!! Had to say no to that since we just had some plumbing taken care of. Found out we had a water leak after the meter reader told us we had used 45,100 gallons of water in the past month!!! Our normal usage is 5,000 to 6,000 a month.

Will post photos tomorrow. I am so excited to get back to quilting now!

Hope you had a great couple of days!

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Massaging a Star

Do you all recognize this guy? That's right, it is Bruce Willis. I was lucky enough to give him a massage!! Not just once, but twice!! He was in El Paso, Tx. doing a movie and had pulled some muscles and wanted a massage. The owner of the spa that I did some work with got a call - they needed a therapist to show up to a hotel to give a massage to someone connected to the filming. I volunteered to go, the hotel was close to my parents house, they had The Baby, so I had to be on that side of town anyway. I figured it would be a director or set person, but not Bruce Willis! Some other therapist had gotten calls, but so far, no one had worked with a star. I remember knocking on the door, wondering who would open it. When it turned out to be Mr. Willis, I about fell out. I am sure my mouth was hanging open. I went in, set up my table and began my work. I kept telling myself, he is just a regular guy, he is just a regular guy. I gave him a 2 hour massage and went back the next day to give him another 2 hour massage. He turned out to be a really nice guy. Once I quit being star struck, I relaxed and we had a good conversation. He complimented me on not being nervous and said he wished he would have had me as a therapist when he first arrived. During his massage, the phone rang and he asked if I would get it - it was Demi Moore. She was calling him to say goodnight. He spoke to his girls and sang to the littlest one (she was about the same age as The Baby). This all happened a couple of weeks before Christmas and I was very happy to receive a $300.00 tip on the last day.

Well, that is my claim to fame. I am now off to more mundane things like cleaning the house. It is raining today so I will be in my sewing room. Hope to have some photos of what I am working on.

Hope you all have a fantastic day!
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Happy Fathers Day

Yesterday was Fathers Day. I hope everyone had a great day. We went to see Toy Story 3 in 3D. It was a really cute movie. I think we were the only people in the theatre that didn't have little kids.

My father passed almost 7 years ago, so I didn't have to join the hustle and bustle of buying cards and presents. I did, however, think of him often during the day and remembered some good times I had with him. My Dad was an Army Officer and our house was run much like the military. There were never a lot of family bonding times, family trips, etc. For much of my young life, I didn't really care for my Dad. I changed my feelings about him when The Baby came along. He was a very different person with her.

I remember when she was 2 years old and she and my father had been swimming (my Mom has a pool in the backyard), The Baby had just gotten out of the pool and took her swimsuit off and went in the house to get some clothes on. My Mom wanted to show us her brand new, cream colored wing back chair. We all traipsed to the living room to Ooohh and Aaahh over it. The Baby decided to try it out of size - she looked so cute sitting there. All of a sudden she did that little shiver that lets you know she just peed! Remember, she was naked. We stood and looked at her in shock and waited for my father to have a fit and all he said was, "Oh well, just flip the cushion over." I couldn't believe he was so calm. That was how the rest of his time with The Baby was.

He used to pick her up from kindergarten on Wednesdays (Wed. was a really busy day for me - didn't usually finish work till 10p.m.). One Wednesday she told him her "throat was dry," and he wondered if ice cream would help. That began a tradition of going to Baskin Robbins for an ice cream every Wednesday. The people at the store got to know both of them and knew what flavors they liked. They made a great pair!

Big phoned her Dad, who lives in Michigan, and they chatted for a while. We sent him a card and a gift certificate to Cracker Barrel.

You may wonder about The Baby's father. She was conceived by artificial insemination by an unknown donor. There is a long story to that and someday I may tell it, there are a few parts of the story that are rather funny. Anyway, I really wanted to have a child, so that was the route I chose. I was with my ex at the time. I have always said she gave me two things: 1.) the financial help to get pregnant, 2.) the courage to never be a victim again. She was an abusive alcoholic and I stayed too long. Although, had I not been with her, I would not have my wonderful child and my life would be very different. So for this I forget the bad and thank her for the good I now have.

So this was our Father's Day. How was yours?

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The past couple of days I have been busy working in the garden, cleaning our garage and a whole lot more. It has been so hot here, that I have been getting up early to work in the flower and vegetable garden. Here are a few photos of what is blooming right now.


This is our kitty "Batz" she is loving the catnip I planted. This was planted in hopes that they would be distracted and leave the birds alone!! I think she is a little stoned!


I have always loved Red Hot Pokers and was lucky enough to find one. It is close to the hummingbird feeder - they seem to like it also. I think it will look nicer next year.


I think this is an African Daisy, but I am not sure. I have had it in the ground for a while and didn't think it would bloom again. I love the colors.


Hydrangeas are one of my favorite plants. This was planted here by the previous owner. I didn't get a chance to trim it down, so it is sort of overgrown. I don't care - I think it is beautiful.


We have a lot of Day lilies and it is a treat to wake up each morning and look outside to see which ones are blooming. These photos do not do any of the flowers justice, especially not the Day lilies.


We have Day lilies in the front yard and the side yard. I have to get to them before the deer. Right now the deer are winning - there are only sticks where there should be blooms!


Another favorite of mine is echinacea. This one is a bright pink - again, the photo does not do it justice.

Well, I hope you enjoyed some of my photos. I would like a better camera and then would like to take a class on using it. I would love to have better photos.

It is hot, hot outside, so I am going inside and will spend some time sewing today. I have been looking at some great blogs and have gotten a lot of inspiration from them. So it is off to sew!! Oh yeah, Big is taking Thursday of next week off so that we can attend the State Quilt Guild Show. I am so excited. This will be my first time to attend something like this. There will be over 175 quilts, classes, lectures, an auction and more. I am sure that Big is thrilled (not so much). Hey, I support her Strongwoman/Strongman stuff and watch her and others flip tractor tires, lift cement balls and more, so she supports my quilting. Actually, she is looking forward to it - she is a good sport.

Hope you all have a wonderful Friday!

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Quilt Guild Meeting, etc.

I went to the Guild meeting last night and was pleasantly surprised, a couple ladies spoke to me. One lady actually complimented my cookies!! I took a top that I had made about a year ago for "Show and Tell." It is one of my favorites. It was my first Stack and Whack. I got a few OOOhhhs and AHHHs, so I was happy. Perhaps they are not such bitches after all. (Well, some of them are!!)

I tried to take photos, but they did not come out well. I will post a few. The ladies that attended from the Elkins Quilt Guild were very nice and I am tinkering with the idea of joining their group. They are very involved with a lot of charity work and seem to be so friendly. Hmmm...I will have to ponder that.

Today I will be cleaning house, making blueberry jam and hopefully get in my sewing room for some quilting. We'll see how that goes.



This is my stack and whack - the main material is an oriental print with cups and tea pots. It reminds me of The Baby and our Tea Time Thursdays.






The lady who made this quilt did it while on a car trip to see her family. She hand pieced each of the 9 patch blocks. When she got to the various houses of her family, they would help piece some of the blocks. She said the 9 patches represent the 5 girls and 4 boys in her family. The girls are the "bright" materials and the boys are the background material. I thought that was funny!


This is a quilt that was made for the son of the quilter. He was in the Navy and had been to Australia and loved it there. She found material that represented Australia and this is what she came up with. I wish the photo was better - the quilt was stunning. The back was as wonderful as the front.

Hope you all have a wonderful day - mine will be busy, but good.

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Missing in Action

I have had a very busy week and was usually too tired to blog. I have popped in on some of you though, got to get my fix.

Monday was taken up by cleaning house and helping The Baby practice parallel parking. She is just now getting around to taking her drivers test. She is not allowed to have a car at school (it is an old school and they don't have the space), so she was not in a rush. Also, I think she liked being chauffeured by me! We practiced more Tuesday morning and in the afternoon drove to the next town for her to take her exam. She was nervous, but she passed. She was so happy. As for me, I am beginning to see how wonderful it is to have someone who will run your errands!!

Wednesday was The Baby's first day of training for her job. She drove herself there and I was a little nervous. She has an hour drive each way. She made it there and found out she will enjoy the people she will be working with. That makes me happy - last year the kids she worked with treated her like an outsider and it was very hard on her. She is in state-wide training from today until Wed. She will be back at her jobsite Thurs. Monday, the kids arrive. Perhaps I should say that she is working for a Vista Volunteer program called Energy Express. It is a reading program for kids who need help with their reading and also for underprivileged kids. She has volunteered with them for 3 years, last year she was a Mentor and this year she is the Volunteer Coordinator. The pay is good (she makes as much in 8 weeks as she would have made if she was working in a fast food place for 12 weeks. She also gets a $1,000 stipend toward her education.) It is a good job and she loves working with kids.

Saturday and Sunday, I spent working in the yard. I got the bright idea to create a "wildlife" area on our property. I will be using the area on the other side of the fence. We have had a bird feeder there since we have lived here and we all enjoy sitting on the back porch watching the birds. I also pulled weeds (took forever) and planted some newly purchased flowers. I also transplanted some things from the front yard to the wildlife area. I built a feeder tray, hung some dried corn for the squirrels, and hung a thistle feeder for the goldfinches. You know that saying, "Build It and They Will Come," I am sorry to report, it is not working in my backyard. Since I made the additions to the feeding area, I have less birds and squirrels than before. Big says they are getting used to it - I hope so.



These are two of our kitties - they are watching a squirrel eating at the feeder. I wonder if they have something to do with the lack of wildlife?!?! Notice the weeds growing over the rocks!

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Here are a couple photos of the flower bed after spending a whole day weeding it. It might be hard to see how clean it is, but trust me, it is weed free (at least for a day or two!)



This is the feeder I made for the squirrel and gold finches (I am sure the deer will find it also), I used an old part of a plant stand and a tray that goes under a pot. So far, I have only seen one goldfinch in it, but I am keeping my fingers crossed.



I found this at my favorite nursery today. I don't know what it is called, I just know I love it! It was 30% off, which made it about $10. It is about 3 feet across! The nursery will have a 50% off sale at the end of this month and I will race there to get some perennials and perhaps some shrubs. They run out early, so I will have to beat the crowds.



Oh yeah, I made these to take to the quilt guild meeting tonight. Sometimes I am not sure why I go, they treat me like an outsider. I guess I am a gultton for punishment!! They are Creme De Mint Cookies - very, very good!


These are poppy seed muffins I made this morning. Also very good.

Hope everyone had a wonderful week! Look forward to reading what you all have been up to. I am off to shower and get ready for the meeting!!


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The Baby is Better!!

The Baby is finally on the road to recovery. Thanks for the well wishes for her. Her fever finally broke on Saturday and she was able to get up and move around some. Eating and drinking has not been fun for her. Funny how grown children (well, almost grown) become babies again when they are sick. Please don't get me wrong, I don't like it when she is sick, but I do enjoy the opportunity to "mother" her. As she grows up, I get less and less chances to baby her.

This weekend we spent a lot of time watching movies. Last night we watched "Whip It." It was a fun movie that didn't require a lot of brain power to watch. On Saturday we watched "My Sisters Keeper." If you haven't seen it, and want to watch it, be prepared. You will cry the entire time! I have a hard time with movies and commercials that are about sick children. I actually had to close my eyes at times with this movie. The three of us were balling like big babies.

I also did some knitting and cut some hexagons from a charm pack for a table runner. I have never worked with hexagons before, so I think this will be fun.

Yesterday, I was very domestic and made a Lemon Blueberry Bundt Cake. It is delicious! If you want the recipe, let me know. Big got to to the cake before I had a chance to photograph it, that is why there is a knife in it!!



I know I promised to tell you a secret - but it will have to wait until tomorrow! Anticipation...

Have a wonderful day!

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Sick Baby

The Baby is sick, I mean really sick. She came home from camping with The Boyfriend yesterday afternoon and complained of body aches and being tired. She chalked it up to sleeping on the ground (they couldn't find the air mattress). Later that night she started running a fever. Gave her some meds. and sent her to bed. True to form, by 5 a.m. (when Big checked on her) she had a temperature of 101. More meds. and when the Doctors office opened, we took the earliest appointment. Turns out she has strep. She was given an antibiotic and she is now in bed. I just can't seem to keep her fever down. At one time she was 104.3! I wiped her down with a cool rag and got the fever down some. It is now at 102.3. I know that when Big comes home she will make her get in a tepid bath if the temperature is not down. I can be a strict mom, but when my baby cries, I have a hard time following through with some things. The Baby has always gone from a normal fever to a very high one and it always worries me. I am keeping a very close watch on her. I may or may not post over the next couple of days. I won't walk far away from her until her temperature is close to normal and she is feeling better.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I have a secret to tell you all about in my next blog! I will tell you this much - I am a bad, bad girl!



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Hello My Friends, Hello

Hello all of my wonderful blogging friends. I have missed all of you and missed blogging. I have been spending a lot of time with The Baby and it has been wonderful. For the past couple of days she has been off camping with her boyfriend (so far, so good) they will be home later today, so I thought I would take the free time to post.

Other than spending time with The Baby, there has been a lot going on in my life. Nothing horrible, but a lot that has really affected me emotionally, and in some cases made me look at my life and do some re-evaluating. There have been some things that have made me very happy, some things that have made me sort of happy, some things that have made me sad and some that have made me angry (that has happened a lot!!) So, in order to not bore you with a super long post, I have decided to make a list of things that have been going on in my life and next to them I will let you know the emotion that I am feeling/felt.

Here is the emotion Key:

PMO = Pissed/Pisses Me Off
MMH = Made/Makes Me Happy
MMA = Made/Makes Me Angry
MMS = Made/Makes Me Sad
MMC = Made/Makes Me Cry

Here is the list:

My MIL - PMO, MMC (Big time PMO!!!)

Big - MMH, MMA

Quilting - MMH

The Baby - MMH, MMC, MMS (She makes me happy, some situations make me sad)

The overabundance of Testosterone in my body - PMO!!!

Gardening - MMH (The deer eating my plants after I work hard in the sun PMO)

My MIL - PMO (Oh sorry, I think I already said that!)

Cleaning House - MMH

A Full Release from Dr. Rasputin - MMH

My Mother - MMH, MMS, MMC, MMA (I am sure she will read this and I will get a call and have to explain it all - I almost didn't post it, but what the hell!)

Coffee with my friend who has more shit and bad stuff going on in her life than I do - MMH,(spending time with her) MMS (for her situation)

The lack of Estrogen in my Body - PMO

A glass of wine at the end of the day - MMH

My MIL - PMO (sorry again, but she really upset me!!)

The Baby's 19th birthday - MMH

F***ing Hot Flashes!!! - PMO

Blogging - MMH


I am sure there is more to the list, but I don't want to bore you all. Hopefully you get the idea of what has been happening in my life.

When I finish posting, I am off to a quilt show and do some shopping in Clarksburg. There is a small town (most of WV is small towns) that is about 30 minutes away (everything is at least 30 minutes away) that is celebrating the first battle that was fought in West Virginia during the Civil War. Big is very interested in Civil War history, so we will go to that this weekend. Today, I will attend the quilt show they are having - if it looks worthy of Big and The Baby's time and attention, we will return on Saturday. I am not sure what to expect, but am looking forward to it.

On a side note - this lack of estrogen and overabundance of testosterone is really getting to me. I can now understand why guys punch walls when they are angry. My new saying has become "I could just smash that!" Any hints on how to deal with this or when it will go away??

Here is a photo of my pansies after the deer dined on it.



Hope you all are having a wonderful day! I am glad to be back!

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