Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all my blogging friends! 

I have decided not to make any quilting goals this year, mainly because I still plan to focus a lot on Genealogy.  I do have some plans like finish a couple of projects I have in the works and to make a quilt for Kierra and her husband and to make Mr. B a new one.  He did request a new quilt.  I didn't finish all I had planed for 2010 but I am good with that.  What I was working on was more important.  Plus that stocking took a lot of time, but it was appreciated and that is all that matters.



Fall Table Topper

Today after taking the tree down, doing the grocery shopping and having dinner with Mr. B.  I was able to sit down and finish the binding on the Fall Table Topper I started it in October or November.  I really like the pattern and I would like to make it again. 
I just remembered I do have one goal to make my give away quilt sooner!

Happy Stitching!

For all Women

Just so you know you are not really invisible.

Cool pictures of space

If you like beautiful pictures of space and some uplifting thoughts check this link out. This one is called The Carina Nebula: Star Birth in the Extreme.
In the article you can click on the pictures and see the larger version. These must be mind blowing amazing when enlarged to feet. The largest picture was blown up to 4feet by 7 feet.
Enjoy!

http://www.ldsmag.com/churchupdate/091023heavens.html

Every once in a while...

...a husband can surprise you. He just noticed my new curtains in the Hobby room. He wanted to know when and how I put them up. I mean I did walk right by him with the fabric in my hands, but he was watching TV and he does get lost in TV. I even got the step ladder out to reach over my desk and even them out. I mean he was in the family room, just 10 feet away.
Any way the best part is he said they look nice. It's nice when they appreciate the feminine touch we add to make a house a home. Then he looks to his window on his end of the room and noticed he doesn't have his new ones yet. That is for tomorrow night.

A Gentle Reminder

Don't be horrified and don't be surprised but today is September 25th and that means there is only 3 months until Christmas. A lot of people say how did Christmas get here so fast. Well it gets here one day at a time. So I thought I give you a little gentle reminder that it is closer than you think. It's a little too soon for the Christmas count down widget, plus I don't want to take away from the big event our family is having on Halloween.

I have done some more work on my DJ Boo Swap, I'm not happy with the bottom left corner, so I'll be doing some frog stitches and more fabric preview. I'm thinking big triangles of the blue and orange and let it go at that. I'm also wondering about borders. The original design I was modeling after doesn't have borders. I don't think it really needs them but I have some great orange & black fabric to use up.

I'm a little bummer today I have one of my cats in the vets. She must have had a fight with a visiting cat, and she had an abscess that drained. Now she is getting a drain put in, and antibiotics. She was a good kitty in the vets office. The visiting cats are baned from the house and locked in the kids room. Richard will pick her up from work, as I'm working evenings today.

Well now I have to go to work.

It is so hard..

...to be a talented artistic type person and live with or know others who have no artistic anything.
Our daughter Kierra has a window in the living room by the front door. I offered to make a little quilt for it, to cover it, since she has it covered with a plastic bag. Her colors are black and red. I took pictures of my stash of black & red, I draw up a quick little bargello quilt in EQ6. I sent her the pictures and this is what she wants. Double Click on it to see the larger imagine.

I tell this to my husband who has no understanding as to why I would call this the ugliest quilt I will ever make. He also told me I should cut it up and sew it back together again as if it would have had different colors. Of course I'm thinking he is a little off his rocker with this idea. He thinks I don't get it because I won't cut it up and sew it together like a quilt.
So since this what the kid wants that is what she will get, I'll quilt it with a straight lines cross hatching and call it done. It will service it's purpose to cover a window and she will know I care because I made her something how she wants and likes.
Meanwhile I will know she could have had something nicer and I did my best...

Here is how it would look in black & gray. As well as the black & red version.

I guess that is why they make 31 flavors of ice cream we all have different tastes.

Vacation Day 5 Lauderdale by the Sea, Visit with Don & Kathy

Saturday May 9 found Linda and us in Fort Lauderdale.

I moved to Fort Lauderdale when my Dad retired from the NYC fire department in 1959 when I was 11. Here is a picture of me and my then 2 brother George 9 & Donald 7 in front of our home. Unfortunately we can't see our house. That first year in Florida was very interesting. My Dad always wanted to move to Florida after he was a caddy at Aurthur Godfrey's golf course in Miami Beach when he was in his 20, so we moved. It was very much an adventure for me. We stayed in a motel in Pompano Beach for a week until my parents found a house to buy and a school to enroll us in. I remember my Dad saying that was the fastest he ever bought a house. They paid $12,500 for it, you can't buy a car for that now. Anyway my parents weren't sure if they liked it in Florida or not, one day my Mom won't like it, another day by Dad won't like it. If they had ever not liked it on the same day we would have been back in Whitestone NY. About a year after we moved into the house my parents finally bought curtains for all the windows, they had decided to stay.
As a kid I loved it, my Dad worked a job that had him home by 3 PM and we went to the beach everyday. In the summer the winter visitors left town and if you saw 3 cars on US 1, that was a lot of cars. Friday nights my Dad would take us to a drive in movies. My Mom was pregnant with my youngest brother and I'm sure she enjoyed the peace and quite. For a couple of years when I was in high school we joined a Beach Club to swim at all summer long. We were living it up. We didn't have air in the house for a long time, my Dad did add it.

Here I am my Senior Year Sept of 64 in front of the house. I went to Cardinal Gibbons High School.



So Linda took us by my old house, but it has changed. Here is how it looks today.

We had lunch at a restaurant right on the beach by Lauderdale by the Sea. After lunch we walled on the pier.

Linda took me to a quilt shop, Richard stayed in the car. The poor guy has been to every quilt shop in AZ, and several now in FL, CO, CA. He is defiantly a quilt widower.

Next stop my brother Donald's house. He is 5 years younger than me. Here is a picture of him on his wedding day and a picture of us now. They were married in 1981. We had a great visit catching up and remembering our childhood.




Well I half way through my vacation and I'm going to take a break and do some sewing, something I haven't done in a few weeks. More to come. I hope this isn't too boring for you all but I'm also doing this for my kids so they have a little record of my childhood.

Beatuiful Screen Saver

Are you like me and like beautiful pictures? Do you like positive statements to remind you of your divine nature and purpose. I have just the screen saver for you. Click on this link and do the downloads. I hope you enjoy! http://deseretbook.com/pages/screensavers
The pictures and quotes are from Sheri Dew's newest book.

A very small speed bump in the road of life.

Well here I'm in all my glory after my cataract surgery. It was hard to smile with all that tape on my face. That shield and patch were very annoying. It was also annoying that I could not read. I survived a whole 24 hours with out reading! A small miracle in itself. I couldn't get my glasses over my shield. I ended up making a run to the doctors office yesterday afternoon because it felt like I had an eye lash in my eye. Sure enough my eye bottom lashes had turned up and were in my eye. Do you know how hard it is to keep an eye closed when the other one is open, even with it patched down. I reclined in my lazy boy watching TV and sleeping. Which of course meant I didn't sleep well last night.

Today when to the doctors and I had my patch removed and my eye examined. I can now see 20 - 40 in that eye for distance. And that is less than 24 hours after surgery. I had a mono vision lens implanted.
I have to admit I was very nervous going into surgery, after all I understand all the risk and complications that can occur. The idea of anything near my eye drives me nuts let alone anything in it. I can't even stand others putting in eye drops. My logical brain said this is very minor, the most common surgery performed, high success rate and all. But it's that old emotional brain that get scared and worries. I also come from a long line of worriers, so I can do it well.

I'm grateful for many things, just to live in an age of implantable lens is wonderful. The care is so much easier than it was 40 years ago when I was an LPN and did private duty for cataract patients who had to stay in bed and couldn't turn to the operative side and a whole bunch of other things. I had a good skilled doctor and nurses and best of all I have a good husband you held my hand and took care of me. Plus he and Kinsen have to do the kitty litter boxes for the next 2 weeks!! The surgery wasn't as bad as what my imagination can conjure up. All I saw was a bright light and at the end I could see the drop the doctor put in, it looked like a circle spreading across my vision. The anesthesiologist said I fought the anesthesia all the way. I wasn't trying to, but I needed double of the IV stuff as well as the local anesthesia around my eye. Like I said I was really nervous. Nurses just don't make good patients. We don't like being on the other side of the needle.

I'm glad it is over and I very glad for my gift of vision!! How precious a gift it is. Go enjoy looking at beautiful things today. I know I will.

Serendipity!

I had to chuckle when I posted my new post last night, the quote for the day changed to the following.
"It is not how old you are, but how you are old."
Jules Renard
It reminds me of another quote I have in a little book of quotes I have keep for years.
Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years.
People grow old only by deserting their ideas.
Years may wrinkle your skin but to give up interest wrinkles the soul.
Gen Douglas MacArthur

Have a great day! And enjoy life.

A Few of My Favorite Things

Christmas is my favorite time of the year. I love how the world is all dressed up and puts forward it's best foot. I love the decorations, the Christmas music, the plays and the books. Most of all I love the reason why we celebrate and the hope it brings to our life. I'm grateful for the knowledge I have of Christ's birth, His life and his Atoning sacrifice for us.
The pictures below are a few of my favorite things. Bubble Candles that don't seem to bubble like they did when I was a kid. Mini souvenirs of things I frequently saw while I was a missionary in Bolivia. I have lots of hats, a few llamas and a couple of clay pots and some shoes made from tire tread. Hand made ornaments I made over the years. Ornaments from friends, some are lambs because I collect lambs, some from patients that I cared for over the years, so I have some nurse ornaments.
My collection of Nativity scenes is growing, some are gifts from friends, some I purchased and one I made in ceramic classes way back in 1973. Poor Mary has lost her praying hands, but I still put the set out in the place of honor under the tree.
Part of the fun of decorating is to relive the memories of times past of family and friends.
My prayer is that my children will some day have good memories from the ornaments and quilts I have given them.

Well I did it!

I have been thinking about starting a Blog for a while. I have friends with blogs and I visit a lot of quilting blogs. This one is for me, my friends and my quilting. I also am making a family site for my family that I'm going to give as a Christmas gift to the family with the hope it will help us keep up with each others news and life. That will be on MyFamily.com.
Well it is the early morning hours of Thanksgiving day and I decided to start my blog today. I hadn't planed on starting it at 4 AM but I was up and couldn''t go back to sleep, so I came to my computer and started. But right now I need to go back to bed.
More later, until then Happy Thanksgiving!! I hope I always have an attitude of gratitude!