geek

OMG!  a lady I work with just offered to let me add stuff to her craft faire booth and I'm sort of freaking out about it right now.  She said if I have anything by November 16th I could add it.  What if I do????  I'm totally geeking out right now.

rummaging

So, while Mom and I were at the coast we had cruised over to Mendocino to shop.  There was one particular shop that had a bunch of seasonal stuff.  It took me awhile to decide what I wanted as a souvenir.  This is what I chose:
It makes me laugh every time! Friday night I checked out the new Joann's store. It is huuuuge! And there is so much new stuff that the old store didn't have. It was so much fun to walk around gawking at everything! I spied this in the Halloween decor and just had to have it. Aren't they funny next to each other??? Yesterday Jan and I met at the fairgrounds for the annual rummage sale. How much do you think I could stuff into a paper bag for $4? This is a little like how much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood....lol. There are 4 white flat sheets that are full and twin sized, a full fitted sheet and a full sized printed sheet. Vintage books with great illustrations, racks to organized under sinks, hangers to hold up quilts. The candle holder and duck planter actually were in one of Jan's 2 bags. It's kind of hard to tell from the picture but the candle holder is like mercury glass.
I also started another quilt. This color scheme has been bouncing around in my head for awhile.  I think it will have another couple rows at the top or bottom.  The bigger flying geese pieces haven't been trimmed down yet, once they are then altogether it's going to be a lot smaller than I had pictured.  I don't know yet if this will be gifted or a charity. quilt.  I only know of one other preggers lady right now and she doesn't know what she's having and I don't really know if this would be her style or not.  I've been using the no waste method of flying geese.  It's pretty easy and fast and you get near perfect geese every time!

pink and girly

Tonight I feel like I'm playing hooky.  Tonight is book club but I didn't/couldn't go because I didn't read the chapters.  Wanna know what kept me from reading this weekend?  A little baby quilt :) It's just pinned up on my "design wall" so excuse the fabric peeking from behind. Speaking of behind, here's the back view: This is going to be for a lady that I work with who is having a girl. When I asked what her color scheme was she said pink. Theme, anything girly. Huh. So this is what I came up with, I added eyelet lace around the binding. I really like the way it turned out! My sewing machine was reeeeealllly testing my sanity though. I got about 1/4 of it done when it started not catching the bobbin thread. So, I stopped for awhile (went to Joann's for retail therapy) and then came back to it. Then it started chopping off the thread after quilting a few inches. huh. Okay so I changed the needle to a new one. Same thing. Well, maybe the machine didn't like that brand needle? No problem, I have more. Nope. I pushed through, not getting angry.........and then it started both problems at the same time and cutting off the thread like every inch or so. Yikes. Sanity. Slipping. Away. I took a little coffee break. I don't usually drink coffee in the afternoon. Then I remembered my old machine that I killed. What if it wasn't truly dead? What if it just needed a 6 month hiatus? Yessiree. It sqeaks, but it works and I finished up the quilt with it. So, all that to say that I didn't quite fit in any reading time because my mental health was teetering a little. I'm fine now, though :)

I must be crazy

Because yesterday I got off work 45 min early because I was in danger of running over hours.  I was set freeeeeeee! So, I thought, I'll just drop in Jo-ann's and see what's up.  Last week everything was 75%.  Starting yesterday everything is 90% off!!!!!  Holy cow dude.  I thought the parking lot was kind of packed, and this explained why.  People were buying up fabric like mad, me included!  I also scored a couple of books and a dvd on how to knit cables, bobbles and lace!  I saved $285!!!! After waiting 2 hours in line.  What makes me crazy?  I called Jan this morning and she was down there again (she was there yesterday too) and said the line wasn't too long.......I took the quickest shower known to man and drove down there.......and waited in line another 2 hours!  BAH!  I'd say it was worth it though.  Between last night and today I saved like $500!  I scored a bunch of Denyse Schmidt cotton, some brown Kona solid and lots of thread, pearle cotton thread, more fabric and nice ribbon.  Oh, and double pointed knitting needles and a cable needle.

In 2 weeks will be the grand opening of the new store and frankly I feel sort of bad for it.  We've all just been spoiled by 75-90% off everything and will turn our noses up at a mere 50%.  Or will we? 

First Fall weekend

Today is the 2nd official day of Fall, which means that I feel I have used some restraint in waiting a day to make something pumpkin :) grin.  This morning I baked a couple loaves of pumpkin bread with a cream cheese swirl.  I found the recipe last year on Pinterest and made it a couple times.  This year, it's just as yummy!


So yesterday I had planned on going to a scrapbooking thing but it was cancelled.  What's a girl to do?  Hmmm.  Get a pumpkin spice latte from Starbuck's and go to Joann's.  There is a new store opening in town so the old store is having a liquidation sale because they won't be taking any old stuff to the new store.  Which means everything is 75% right now!!!!!  I mean, really, how could I NOT go?  It was packed in there!  I came away with some fun fabric, lots of thread and a bunch of other stuff for like 35 doll-hairs!
I bought some ribbon to finally finish the Steeler's wreath I started last year!  This is actually 2 wreath layered together. 



Went home, finished the quilt top I'm working on. (pics later when said quilt is finished) Today I finished the back and have called it good.  Thursday night I'm going to take advantage of the tables at another scrapbooking event to baste the layers together and then most likely quilt it all up next weekend!

On a side note, I had bought a book on cd on a whim at the library book sale and have really enjoyed listening to it while sewing!  Now I know why hubs likes the audio books so much.  Talk about multi-tasking. 

back from the beach

Yikes!  I have neglected my blog!  Sorry about that.  What have I been up to?  A little pickling: enjoying farmer's market: And some much needed down time with my Mom at the beach! So much fun! We went to Ft. Bragg, CA last weekend and it was v. nice. Here was our view from the hotel room. Beautiful. We found a really nice beach with the help of a local and it was just perfect. My Mom may or may not kill me for this picture, but I think it's cute!
 We did some bird watching. They were hilarious! Mom did some reading while I did some knitting. We also trolled around Mendocino which was nice. There were some really cool shops. We also went to see Finding Nemo in 3D, which was awesome! Mom hadn't been to a 3D movie and this was only the 2nd one I had been to and we really enjoyed it. I loved sitting next to Mom listening to her laugh, she hadn't seen it before so it was fun to see her reactions :) All around it was a great trip!


ps: if you ever go to Ft Bragg you have to check out Egghead's for breakfast, it's sooooo good.  The smallest seating areas you've ever been in but worth it.  And now I must learn how to make garlic swirled crepes and it's their fault :)

to pickle or bust

Today I checked out the farmer's market hoping to find cucumber to pickle.  One of the ladies I work with had been there last weekend and said she had gotten a whole bunch.  I got there a bit later than I had thought I would and at first was kind of disappointed that I missed the boat.  There were cucumbers at a few vendors but they were either too big or not the right kind.  I asked at one booth and he said they were just starting to produce and to check back next week.  Huh.  I took another turn hoping I'd missed something somewhere.  I asked at the very last booth and she said "in the cooler."  Score!  I picked out about 70 cukes, some jalepenos and garlic.  Next stop was the grocery store and I got the very last bunch of dill!  I've never garned so much attention as when I was walking through the store with that giant (and I do mean giant) bunch of dill!  I had no less than 5 people comment!  It was hilarious.  One guy wanted to go with me home to make pickles!  Now I just need to find some grapes leaves and I'll be good to go.  There are some vines up the road so I'm going to stop and ask if I can have a branch - wish  me luck!