Sunday, October 31, 2010

Holie Molie

I'm on a roll.  This is the third and last post for the day.  I've been so full of energy.  lol.  I got this little project all quilted and just waiting to go in the washing machine.  I thought it turned out real cute and I love the way the colors worked.  Independently they were some pretty miserable fabrics but altogether I think they look alright.





I think I'll call it Cheddar Cheese & Crackers!!!
Happy Stitching,

Renee

Two Posts In One Day-Whoa!!

Okay so last night I wanted to sew right?  Right.  Did I sew?  Ha ha ha!!!!  Let me tell you, you would have thought my eyes were sewn shut last night.  Phew.  I was sitting here reading on my phone while I waited for my son to go do his thing before I went to sew and I couldn't hold my eyes open.  This was around 7:30 or so and the next thing you know it's 9:00.  Hubby's back home already and the kid is still sitting here.  Listening to me snore.  lol.  It was like a power nap or somethin' cause I woke up ready to go and nobody to go with and no place to go.  lol.  Honey and me decided to watch the Halloween movie that was on and stayed up real late, midnight.  haha.  We're old so midnight is real late for us.  lol. 

But alas, today has been productive for me.  Remember the seat belt cushion?  It's got a mate now.  Didn't photo it cause I reckon you seen one, you've seen them all.  After that I went ahead and sewed those red  blocks into two more rows for borders.  Then I totally switched gears.  I've had this little project put together and pinned for quilting for some time now.  At least I know I had it showing it to my fam at Labor Day, pins and all in it.  I had started hand quilting it two or three weeks ago maybe and didn't like it.  Plus I will never use t pins again to pin one in.  They constantly stabbed me while trying to hand sew it.  So, today I threw that sucker on the machine and I'm almost half done with it already.  If these men around here didn't have to eat, I'd have it made.  lol.  I'm going to head back over to the sewing room cause Honey said he didn't care if I sewed the rest of the night if I'd just get him some supper.  lol.  Isn't that sweet?  lol. 

I just gotta mention this real quick before I go.  Ever had fried apples?  Oh, we don't have them often and it's a good thing cause the way I make them , they are so totally unhealthy but man are they good.   They smell devine and taste pretty much the same.  I made some of those and some old el cheapo sirloin steaks that I usually fry and get real tough but tonight they turned out awesome and I seasoned mine just right cause it was scrumptous too.  It was kinda like comfort food to me tonight.  lol.

Happy Stitching,

Renee

I Thought My Kids Were Grown?

I'd swear this one was gonna be 25 years old and he's married.  His wife's 22.  But look at them.

Bub was his own version of Jersey Shore's "The Situation"
He was "The Predicament"


Steph was an 80's Madonna/Material Girl.
Too bad her mother-in-law used to dress like that for real!!!!!  LOL!!!!!
 They were going to a party with their best friends, Kyle and Cassie.  They're all the same age, and I think they were having way too much fun.  lol. 


Kyle was an 80's/90's MC Hammer type guy.


Too bad this one's a little blurry cause Cass was spot on as
another Jersey Shore character, "Snookie".
 They were so cute.  I'm wondering how they feel today though.  lol.  They sure will keep you young won't they?  lol.  I'm glad to see they can still act like a kid at heart cause no matter how old they get, they will always be my babies.  All of them.  Love those kids.

Just had to share.  HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!

Renee

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Couple Items Done

This is Honey's seat belt cushion thingy.


Red blocks to sew into borders for the wonkie top.


A set of red blocks sewn together in rows for border.
 Not a big huge accomplishment but something for my day.  Actually the only thing I did today was the seat belt thingy.  The blocks I did sometime through the week or last weekend.  I don't even know anymore when I did make them.  lol.  Isn't that sad?  haha.  Anyway, I hope to do some more goodies this evening after the fellas leave.  I'll hibernate in my sewing room if I can and see what I end up with.  Wish me luck.  Ha.  Happy Stitching to everyone!!!!!

Renee

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Hello My Quilting Friends

Hey everybody. How's everyone doing? I hope this finds you all well and busy on some lovely projects. I haven't been too busy sewing but I've been pretty busy.

Honey had Saturday off for a change so I put him to work here around the house. Lol. Poor guy. We really got a lot of indoor work done that's needed done for too long. We were both happy to have it done. Thanks again doll for your help.

Sunday was lovely and I went out to rake leaves but the wind had other plans. Lol. I cut back all my flowers and hosta's. Then I pulled out what was left of the garden. Pulled my tomato stakes and cages and put them up. I have to get the water hose in and I think we're ready for cold weather. Well, not that we want to be but like it or not it's coming. Boo hoo!

I got robbed this summer from enjoying it like I wanted and had planned. I hurt my back the first week or so in August. Don't know what I did in particular cause I didn't do anything out of the ordinary. Anyway, ends up I had a pinched nerve in my neck. After a week at my chiropractor without improvement I was sent to ER to have my heart checked just to be on safe side and all was well there. Thank goodness. But they diagnosed the pinched nerve and gave me pain meds. Oh yeah. I spent about a week flat on my back doing nothing. I wasn't a happy camper cause I don't like being out of commission. I had beans and tomatoes coming on like mad and I couldn't do a thing about it. Honey had to do it and I don't like putting stuff off on him. He works hard enough. After the pain got tolerable to where I could do something I found myself weaker than snot. Then depression kind of took ahold for a minute. I just didn't enjoy the latter part of summer at all.

Ok my pity party is over. Lol. After all that I can tell you I was more than happy to be outside on such a beautiful day as I'm sure there won't be many more.

I don't know when in between all the work but I did work on some red borders for the wonkie block top. Red's even more fun than the blue. So cute. I'll get them posted later.

Welp. Guess I've rambled enough today. Happy stitching!!

Renee

Friday, October 22, 2010

Do You See This?





















Huh?  All these blue blocks, did ya ever dream I'd throw in some red?  Ha Ha, neither did I.  I gotta tell ya, the blue is pretty and all but it was boring me to death and I thought about how I'd proceed from here and I've had  some thoughts about varied reds as a border on this quilt.  Maybe a white border around the blue blocks and then some sort of red border around that and that's about as far as I've gotten.  lol.  I thought though that I might drop that red in there to draw the eye from a red border to the center of the quilt, kinda tie it in.  I don't know.  Sounds good now but we'll see what she turns out like. 

What are you all doing tonight?  I'll stroll around here after bit and check cause I'm nosey that way.  lol.  Hope everyone has a good night.  Take care.

Renee

Some New Goodies!!

I hate going to Wal-Mart.  Used to love it but now that I'm weird, I just don't like going many places at all.  lol.  But I had to go tonight and while I was there I took a walk down the sewing/beading/whatever aisle.  I'm still mad at them for getting rid of their domestics department.  They just have some small basic stuff now like the likes of what I got tonight for their "sewing" section.  But I was tickled with my purchases tonight none the less.  My sister gave me a rotary cutter a good year, year and a half ago and she said it needed a blade when she gave it to me and she couldn't have been any more right about the blade.  Wouldn't cut butter but I tried using it the other day to cut out my square blocks from those wonkie blocks and while it worked it was messy, yada yada.

Tonight I'm the proud owner of a brand new rotary cutter blade.  lol.  Doesn't take much to tickle me does it?  lol.  I'm down to two spools of white thread so I grabbed a couple more of those and some velcro to make seat belt cushion thingy's.  You know, they pad the belt so it doesn't rub hickey looking things on some folks necks from wearing their seat belt.  My husbands work truck was the worse and we bought a set of them for it.  But he left them in it and now I don't have my pattern anymore.  I need to make a set for our car and thought about making some for Christmas gifts.  Then I got a set of little snaps for any little thing that might come up.  Thinking about making some more baby bibs.  The last ones I made had ties and I just don't think they may be the safest thing.  I used to like the velcro ones for my kids or ones that snapped so they could come off quickly if need be.  Something that had give in case of emergency.  Ties just draw a knot tighter when yanked on so it always kind of bothered me I made them that way.

Anyway, because I haven't been sewing I thought I'd at least post a boring picture of my new stuff.  lol.  Hope everyone is having a good Friday night and are getting some stitching in.  I might try out my new cutter here after bit but no promises.  lol.


Gotta go play.  Have a great weekend.  Everyone take care.

Renee

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Blaghhhh Day

Hey everybody.  How is everyone tonight?  I hope this finds everyone well.  I am sitting around waiting for the Duggars to come on.  I have an hour to go.  lol.  Yeah, I said it, Duggars.  That's another post though.  lol.  Tonight I'm posting pics of one more block I got done yesterday and a little bookmark I had to try.

While these little wonkie blocks are fun to make, they are so time consuming.  I don't know if I'm doing it wrong or not but wow.  I'm not complaining though, just sayin'.  So I got a grand total of 7 of the little darlings done yesterday.  This is the last one.













Then I had found this bookmark idea over on Steel Scraps and had to give it a whirl.  I'm not much for following directions so I changed this up alot.  I'm lazy so I improvised and came up with this so quick it wasn't even funny and it's rough (meaning, very basic, thrown together, no fuss).  I can't imagine how cute they'd look just putting a little time into them.  Just a little time I say cause it's really a snap.  I won't bore you with the how and why unless you're interested and I could post about it but here is what I ended up with.

















I could use a dozen of these right off the bat just for the ladies in the family.  I may make some of these little delights up in the morning.  Today I just did not feel well.  Didn't do anything.  It was just a blaghhh day as the title suggests.  lol.  I plan on being up early tomorrow so maybe I'll get at the machine and do a couple more bookmarks and a couple more blocks and who know what else.  I got alot of catching up to do on my housecleaning since I neglected everything today but I intend to sew first, clean second.  lol.  Have a good night.  Happy Stitching.

Renee

Monday, October 18, 2010

I'm Such A Fibber

Well, in my last post I was looking forward to some sewing time and said I'd post photo's the next day.  Did you see any photo's yesterday?  NO.  Know why?  lol.  I just didn't want to work on that project that I had set my mind to.  So I didn't.  I know, bad girl.  But I did work on my sewing room again yesterday and I am there as far as cleaning and re-arranging.  Today I've taken advantage of my new and improved sewing room and made some wonky blocks.  Wow, what fun!!! 

I had dear old hubby elbow deep in the scrap bag last night helping me go through and sort by color.  Uh, you wouldn't believe the crap I have kept.  hah.  Anyway, I took my bigger strips and made these little crazy blocks and I am in love and am having so much fun today.  It's slow going but I can't wait to see what the next block will look like and I couldn't wait to hang them on the wall and take pics.  So, here is my work in progress.  What are you working on? 








Sorry my pics are a little blurry.  I just can't hold this camera still.  lol.  Too much coffee you suppose?  haha.  Have a great day.  Thanks for stopping by today.  Happy Stitching.

Renee

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Working On Sewing Finally! Woot!!

I'm sorry I don't have a photo of my project yet but I feel all full of energy and would rather sew tonight instead of taking pictures. I'll post pics tomorrow of it.

I took a look at it and decided it wasn't as bad as I thought maybe. It is just a doll blanket and its practice so I'm just forging on. Lol. No ripping out, just trying harder. Hee hee.

First I have to eat just one more Dole fruit juice bar. Lol. My wicked little weekend obcession. Yummy.

Happy Saturday Evening. Happy stitching to you all.

Renee

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Fall Foliage

Hi everyone.  I hope this finds everyone well.  I'm doing good. 

Last Sunday, 10-10-10, hubby took me for an awesome road trip to look at the leaves changing around the area.  We missed flower garden gawking this summer because we didn't have a vehicle we could just go joy riding in.  There are three times of year that I like to just get in the car and go ride.  I love, love, love driving around looking at folks' flowers in the spring/early summer.  Then I like going in the fall to see the leaves change and then again at Christmas to see lights.  Used to be a tradition when I was a kid that we drove out to the country club here in town and drove through the housing around there and stared in amazement at the lovely mansion style homes all decked out with lights from the inside out.  Well, I was a kid and it was the 70's.  Not alot of winter entertainment around here.  lol. 

Anyway, since this is supposed to be a quilting/sewing blog, I thought I'd lay off posting pictures from everyday things and try to stick to sewing related stuff more.  But I got such beautiful photo's from our fall foliage tour that I had to share.  I ended up making a slideshow on my Associated Content site.  Here is the link to the slideshow:  Ohio Fall Foliage.  Hope you all enjoy it.  It couldn't have been a more gorgeous October day. 

Hope you all get some sewing done today.  I haven't been in the mode lately but I feel it stirring.  Hopefully, I can finish up on a project I started last week or so.  But I want to try something new.  There's a new quilt block I want to try and make and I found a candle mat pattern that is really cute that would be an excellent Christmas gift for the ladies in my family.  I need priorities.  lol.  Not just with sewin' either, let me tell ya.  lol. 

Got to get along today.  Happy quilting to everyone.  Take care.  Have a good one.

Renee

Saturday, October 9, 2010

I Like Barns








Hee Hee Hee-I Love Old Pictures

Three Great Ladies
Aunt Helen, Granny & Mom
1970's-ish Time Frame

Wow wee, do I have fun looking at old pictures.  In attempts to clean out my sewing room so I can be sewing instead of tripping over boxes of this and that, I went through the boxes today.  Found a load of old pictures and came across this one.  Although all three of these sweet, sweet, beautiful women are no longer with us, they will NEVER be forgotten.  Coming across a golden oldie like this one is a gem in my day.  haha.  Some of the ladies in our family are "big" girls, including me.  What struck me as so funny (not in a making fun kind of way by no means), besides their stylin' clothes, is how thin they all look which definately adds merit to the time frame as they were all somewhat still spring chickens then. I'm pretty sure they all shrank too.  Mom didn't ever seem that tall to me.  Helen was the tallest at about 5'10" or 5'11" and as far as I know Mom was only 5'6" so it must have been uneven ground beneath.  lol. 

These girls knew what family meant.  We were all tight back in the day and it was because of those three ladies.  I cannot believe how the family has "fallen" off since the loss of our matriarch's.  It's sad so I'm not gonna talk about it much.  Okay, anyway, we were never close with my Dad's side of the family and Mom only had the one sister (Aunt Helen in photo) and as far as I'm concerned, they were the only family a girl needed.  That's how awesome they were.  It was kind of like having a holiday every weekend when we all got together.  Ah, the good old days.

Just wanted to share that little nugget there.  God Bless real old fashioned photo's because I lost alot that I had just on my computer when it crashed.  No hard copies.  Wah!!!!  Got any oldie photo's you care to share?  Would love to see them.

Happy Stitching,

Renee

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

It's A Good Day, If You're A Duck



Me Oh My.  It's raining like crazy here right now.  Wind's blowing up a storm and it's cold and yucky.  Good thing I have plenty of indoor things to do today.  I'm kind of taking it easy but I know before long I will be kicking it into high gear here to get some work done around the house today.  I have a guest coming at four so that's pressure.  haha. 

There's no sewing or projects to report.  Sunday was spent getting the new car running which went like a piece of cake after the day we'd had with it Saturday.  I spent a little while roaming around my little city here just practicing driving it.  It's a stick and it's been awhile.  lol.  I've already moved it with the parking brake on.  Phew, the oder let me know something was wrong right away.  lol.  I also may or may not have been driving it in third gear when it should have been in 5th.  Ooops.  Yeah, the old man found no humor in that one at all.  lol.  I'll get the hang of it.  Say prayers please.  lol. 

Monday, yesterday, I went to my sisters house.  She has been having computer problems for a long, long time and since I had wheels, I went to see if I could help.  Five hours later, I must admit I am puzzled.  Don't get me wrong, that time wasn't in vain.  We did alot of work that needed done to clean up her system.  But there is still a problem and I have about half a dozen things to try next before I have to send her to the powers that be for help.  We plan on getting together again tomorrow for another attempt.  Wish us luck.  lol.  If you're in the family or know my sister and I at all, you'll know why I added the little giggle there.  lol.

I have started hand quilting a little project but haven't picked that up in a day or two because I'm not happy with it so far and I hope maybe tonight I can tear it all out and start again.  I think my problem is cheap thread.  The knots are just way too noticeable and really shouldn't be there but given the thread kept snapping and knotting up, I had little choice.  I haven't gotten too far so it's no biggie to re do it.  I told hubby when I was working on it the other night, there is something about hand sewing and embroidery and such that relaxes me I think.  I haven't done alot of either but I do seem to enjoy it and find it relaxing or something.  I've come a long way with stitch length and straightness that's for sure.  lol.  Isn't it funny how you look back on things you've done and can notice that you've improved, even if just slightly?  I'll be doing that looking back thing for years to come because I know there are always things to improve and things to learn.  I find that a tad frustrating really and think it's why I'm never happy with much of my work.  Instead of accepting my best at any given moment, I am always aware it could be better or I could have used a much easier technique if only I knew more, etc.  Weird I know.  lol.

Thursday and Friday seem to be free of things I have to take care of around here so hopefully they will be sewing days.  Right.  Didn't I just learn over the weekend that the best laid plans seldom pan out for me?  lol.  You all take care.  Happy Quilting and Stay Dry!!.

Renee

Saturday, October 2, 2010

I Love This Man



















I snapped this of him today without him being able to refuse or turn away before I got it.  lol.  Pardon my french, but DAMN do I love him.  I still think he's the best looking, sexiest man alive.  Even after 26 years, he still makes my old heart go pitter pat.  lol.  We've had our shares of ups and downs but here we are, still in love and sometimes acting like silly teenagers over each other.  lol.  Maybe that's our secret, eh?  lol. 

Night, night

Renee

Ho Hum!!!

Well, we sure did have good intentions for today.  haha.  That's right, I said had good intentions.  Why is it that when you make the best of plans that nothing ever seems to go accordingly?  Ever have those days?  Despite our best efforts, honey and me have had a somewhat disappointing day. 

We have been without a vehicle for literally months now.  We had nothing but trouble with our old car since December of 09.  Basically it started nickle-diming us to death.  We just decided to sell it for scrap about 3 or 4 weeks ago.  I was so sad to see it go but I couldn't bear one more problem with it.  My husband's boss has to be one of the kindest men on earth as he has let honey use a work vehicle for all these months we've been without wheels.  It is so very kind of him but I have always felt like it was taking advantage and the more time went by, the worse I was feeling about it.  Plus I was never allowed to drive it of course so I have felt stranded for a long, long time now.  The kids have loaned me theirs once in awhile but I just so hate to drive other folks' cars.  Anyway, we finally bought one.  An el cheapo, no frills, well used older vehicle. 

We knew going in that it needed brakes.  Okay, no problem.  Honey can do brakes in his sleep now.  But we didn't want to chance driving it as it was so we waited until today to go down to the girls house we bought it from and he was going to put the brakes on it and we'd be on our way home with it.  I went and got insurance, plates and brakes for it yesterday.  He planned for today off and we planned to go do this and get on home.  Sounds easy peasy right?  Hah!  Let me tell ya, it was a far cry from easy.

I thought he would never get the hub off the brake thingy whatchamacallit but finally he did.  Yoo hoo.  Making progress now.  He does his thing and he goes to put the hub thingy majig back on and it won't go.  Grrrrrr.  Okay, we got it finally.  Puts it all back together and decides to go ahead and do the other side while he's all set up with his tools and such.  Man, that second hub came off lickity split and we both began to think we were in the final stretches then.   Hold the fort, hold the fort, guess what?  The wheel cylinder was broken.  But fear not, he thought it would get us home anyway so he proceeded.  By this time the girl we bought from showed up and her and I were yacking and all of the sudden honey alerts us that he's just shut us down.  WHAT?  The cylinder completely gave way and fluid starts going everywhere.  Nice, real nice.

He rounded up some of his stuff and put it out of sight and we headed for the parts store.  But alas, guess what?  No part in stock.  I'm still trying to smile during this time but hubby's is fading and his belly's growling by this time.  Sweet.  I called two other stores, no part.  Stop at one more store and they were closed.  We ended up having to order the part and can't get it til they open at 9 a.m. Sunday morning.  Man, tomorrow was an R and R day around here til now.  lol.  Since he didn't go ahead and put all of his stuff away at the car site since he thought he'd be back to fix it, we had to run all the way back down there and put his tools away and lock it all up and leave our new car propped up on a jack and minus one wheel.  lol.  Oh my, please tell me this isn't a sign of things to come with this car.  lol.  Yeah, I'm laughing now but I wasn't so happy earlier.

I just know they better have that part at 9 in the morning or it's liable to get ugly round here.  lol.   Here is our new La Bomba:



It's a 95 Mazda Protege.  We had a 94 Buick Park Avenue.  Loved, loved, loved that car.  Supercharged, with heat and radio controls right on the steering wheel.  Guess you could say we're taking it down a notch.  lol.  Here she is as she went off to the good old car graveyard:















Well, this post certainly hasn't been about sewing or quilting or anything fun at all.  I guess I just needed to get it off my chest.  Here's hoping for a better day tomorrow!  Hope you all are having a better day.  Here's wishing everyone a great weekend.

Renee