Sunday afternoon ride...

Wow - I just fixed my hair and look all cute... (right?) So, let's take a ride on the motorcycle and totally trash that cute look- LOL!
It was just chilly enough to need a coat and something to keep the ears warm. We were hoping for upper 70's, but had to settle for upper 60's instead...




Hey, Mom! Look we are smiling in these pictures and not trying to look tough and menacing...


The trip started out at Bonnie & Larry's house, then on to the Sunrise Cafe for breakfast. Then we made a big loop heading to Marsing and other small towns; ending back in Boise for finger steaks at Buster's in Eagle.

Side note: I seemed to see a lot of livestock on this trip. Lots of baby beasts in the fields ranging from goats, sheep, horses, cows, buffalo, llamas and alpacas. We've got it all here in Idaho :)

Quilt Shop Hop - part 3 (end)

A few shots of quilts we loved! This one was at The Country Quilter in Boise and Bonnie is going to be making one from this pattern. The photo doesn't show it as well, but she plans to use all batik fabrics in muted mauve, taupe and green. It should be awesome!


These three shots are of the same quilt and were taken at Snip's N Stitches in Crouch, ID. Bonnie and I both purchased the kit and will be working on this one probably this fall. The colors are stunning - again my photography leaves a lot to be desired. The sample hanging up had such beautiful quilting, I wanted to make sure I got close enough to see how some of it was done so 6 months from now I can remember!!


So - that was our first Quilt Shop Hop and we loved it! Things we learned for next year:

1. Start out at The Charm Shack in Ontario, OR. [you spend more at the first few stops and all agreed this was our favorite shop on the hop]
2. Start saving money now for next year!! Take twice as much as you think you might spend, then add another $100.00 --LOL
3. Pack tote bags to put purchases in so we can keep everything organized and know what belongs to who at the end of the day.
4. Invite more friends to go along!

And now, Bonnie and I have to completely reorganize our "quilt studio" storage areas in order to put away our new purchases. In fact, at my house right now there are piles and heaps of "Stuff" in that room and the door is firmly closed. I will deal with that on the weekend with a "fresh" brain--and hopefully I will not be sidetracked with oohing and aahing over all the goodies. And, as an incentive to myself, I pledge to get it all put away and lovely, then I'll take photos and post them here to prove I did it! (note to self- LOL)

Pool & Checkers in PJ's...

A picture is worth a thousand words.... some pictures are worth less.






We were kind of playing pool! I know we were laughing a lot and playing Cher's Greatest Hits on the CD player... Notice, I am the one in the red footy pajamas. Aren't they special? They have teddy bears on them and there is nothing sexier than a 45 year old woman in red, flannel, teddy-bear footy pajamas, right?!!
I think I was having a "Cher" moment (maybe a FEW moments)...


And here you have Bonnie looking for ... her marbles?

No - looking for checkers that seem to repel each other when you try to king them. They hid really really well and we spent a great deal of time and effort recovering them.

At which point we decided that maybe we'd had ENOUGH! There might have been a wee bit of alcohol involved in our PJ Pool Checker party, but I'll say this... we slept great that night! LOL

Quilt Shop Hop - part 2

Here are shots of "the booty"! Bonnie's pile on the table below. She was very focused and didn't go crazy (as much as she could have!).



Kristie was interested in getting alot of ideas from patterns & books - and I think she did quite well! We can't wait to start working on new projects.

My pile here on the floor was insanely huge and I was afraid to go home with it! However, my husband was happy for me and even drove me over to the MIL's to show and tell!

So - after a long day of shopping and then eating, we decided to put on the PJ's and go downstairs to play pool and checkers.

How much trouble could we get into playing pool and checkers in our pajamas? ....

The Robin's Nest...

Way up at the top of the storm gutter, back in the corner is the nest. This little guy has been really busy building away. And getting worms to take up to his mate...

I was able to get a ZOOM close up, but it came out blurry (I'm posting it anyway!)

There seems to be a lot of interest coming from the rest of the bird community in this little nest. Mr. Robin has been chasing away all kinds of nosy neighbors! I'm going to have to do some research to find out how long before we have little peepers hatching! fun!!

So - ducks in the front yard, robins in the backyard and 3 yorkshire terrorists inside the house! We have quite a menagerie going these days...

Quilt Shop Hop - part 1

Well! Beautiful Bonnie & Krazy Kristie picked me up at 8:30am Saturday and we hit the road! First stop involved eating a huge breakfast at Shari's Restaurant, then we planned our route for the shops in the Boise metro area. First we went to Kuna, to Knit One, Quilt Too - cute place and the $$ spending began with a bang. We then went to A Quilter's Garden in Meridian, Idaho Sewing & Vacuum (Boise), The Country Quilter, The Quilt Crossing and Quilt Expressions (all Boise). With smoking credit cards, we hit Highway 55 on our way to Crouch/Garden Valley to stop at Snips N' Stitches; one of our favorite places.

The Red/White/Black (and ugly) quilt is the featured Shop Hop Blocks quilt - and none of us liked it... However, all of us flipped over the Vintage Valentine Quilt above. More pictures below showing the quilting up close. Bonnie & I both signed up to be included in this Block of the Month program, so will be making this one eventually!

We were here a LONG time and spent way too much! More to come later....

Ducks in our pond!!

Yesterday evening, when I returned from the Quilt Shop Hop trip (much more about that to come in another posting) I saw to my surprise that we had a pair of Mallard ducks in our front yard pond! This pond is a tiny thing and these little ones were both actually swimming in it before I took the picture. I was lucky to get one shot as they quickly flew off when they saw me with the camera.

My husband told me that they were hanging around the pond all weekend - I wonder if they are nesting nearby? Wouldn't it be great to see some fuzzy ducklings soon? (I hope, I hope...)

On our backyard patio, we have a pair of Robins building a nest! However, the pictures I took turned out too blurry to post -- So I was thinking I need to read-up on using the zoom feature on the camera. I guess we are starting our own bird/fowl sanctuary here - LOL. Time to fill up the bird feeders and see what happens!

Until next time...

Treasure Valley Quilt Shop Hop - starts today!

Here is the info:

Treasure Shop Hop 2008: April 17- 21
Here's early warning for the 2008 Treasure Shop Hop -- Thursday, April 17 through Monday, April 21. All stores will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday; and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday and Monday.

The following eighteen stores are participating in the Hop. If you visit all of them to have your passport stamped, you'll be eligible for the Grand Prize Drawing of a $100 gift certificate to EACH store - yes, that might be as much as $1800! Visit most of the shops, and you'll be eligible for many, many more great door prizes.

A Quilter's Garden - Meridian, Idaho
Charm Shack - Fruitland, Idaho
Cindy's Quilt Shop - Caldwell, Idaho
Granny's Attic - McCall, Idaho
Huckleberry Patches - McCall, Idaho
Idaho Sew & Vac - Boise, Idaho
Knit One - Quilt Too - Kuna, Idaho
LaDonna's Fiberarts - Baker City, Oregon
Marilynn's Pickets & Patchwork - Nyssa, Oregon
Mountain Fabrics - McCall, Idaho
Pins & Needles - Council, Idaho
Quilt Corner - Ontario, Oregon
Quilt Expressions - Garden City, Idaho
Quilts Plus - Halfway, Oregon
Stitch 'n Snip - Garden Valley, Idaho
The Country Quilter - Boise, Idaho
The Quilt Crossing - Boise, Idaho
Traditions Quilt Shop - Baker City, Oregon

Passports (your key to winning the big bucks) will be available at participating stores on April 17.

I am excited about this - 2 friends and I are planning a road trip to hit all the stores except for the 3 in Baker City & Halfway, OR. We will be spending the night up in McCall, Idaho on Saturday and I'm hoping for some bargains!! I have even borrowed my MIL's mini van for this trek so we will have lots of room for purchases. Fun-fun-fun!! Hopefully I'll have lots of goodies to show you when we get back.

The Movie Quotes - answer time!

Since no one is able to guess, I'll cave in and give the answers:
1. GHOSTBUSTERS "I think he can hear you, Ray" the actor that says this is Bill Murray

2. MR. MOM "Yeah. 220... 221, whatever it takes" actor Michael Keaton

3. WHAT ABOUT BOB "Dr. Marvin, I'M SAILING!" Bill Murray, again

4. CADDYSHACK "Be the Ball." said by Chevy Chase

5. FRIED GREEN TOMATOES "Face it girls -I'm older and I have more insurance." Kathy Bates

6. MEN IN BLACK "You know the difference between you and me? I make this look good." said to Tommy Lee Jones by Will Smith

7. HITCH "Like I always tell my clients - begin each day as if it were on purpose. " Will Smith

8. RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK "It's not the years, honey, it's the mileage." Harrison Ford

9. PIRATES OF THE CARRIBBEAN "There'll be no living with her after this. " Johnny Depp

10. MOONSTRUCK "Chrissy, over on the wall, bring me the big knife. I want to cut my throat" Nicolas Cage

Now don't you see how easy these were? LOL

Sharing one of the funniest posts I've ever read...

OK - here is where I found this priceless bit of humor: http://www.joshilynjackson.com/mt/archives/000857.html

And I will try to copy her post below:

"The Near-Tragic Tale of An A Bunnies
It seems like a weird title, but there is no singular form of the word bunnies at my house. When Sam was little, he called all rabbits, “A Bunnies.” In honor of his long gone babyhood, we still call single rabbits “A Bunnies.” Groups of rabbits are ALSO called A Bunnies, and the phrase is like FISH. It can be 1 A Bunnies or 75 A Bunnies, it is all still A Bunnies to us. A, you understand, is part of the proper name, not an article, so it is grammatically correct to say “Yesterday, we saw an A Bunnies in the yard.” Or if more than one, you say, “We saw some A Bunnies in the yard.” We would never say, “We saw a bunnies in the yard.” That would be like saying “We saw tractor in the yard.”
Last week, my dog told me a lie. This is unusual, first because his brain is made of four separate cells that sit too far apart in the darkness of his skull cavity to ever be rubbed together, and I did not know the dog had the intellectual CAPACITY to lie. It was also surprising because Bagel is SUCH a diffident animal. He doesn’t have an alpha dog bone in his body. I suspect his spine is made of taffy.
He practically genuflects when my one-eyed massive pirate cat walks by, and he is SO submissive that when we FIRST brought him home, he had a healthy “SIR, YES SIR!” style respect for a large wrought iron pig that sits on the hearth by the fireplace. He would run through the den and as he passed the pig he would go all LOW BELLY and shoot it a worried glance as he slinked and bobbed past it. He wasn’t sure if the pig was ALIVE, but just in case it decided it WAS, he wanted to make absolutely sure the pig understood its authority was not being challenged.
But the KITTEN, Boggart the Dreadful, is another matter. The wrought iron pig has seniority, clearly, but Bagel was here BEFORE the kitten. He sees the kitten as a peer and they REALLYenjoy each other’s youthful, sproingy company as they bound through the house and wear each other out playing fun games like “Let’s Ruin All the Furniture” and “Can This Be Eaten? (Yes!)”
When we first got Boggart, he was about the size of Bagel’s left ear-flop. NOW he is about the size of Bagel’s head, so he plays with Bagel as if the head were the entire dog. Sometimes he plays with Bagel as if the TAIL was the entire dog, but he doesn’t ever try to take on all 50-some pounds worth of hound. Bagel, chock full of good stupid goodness, agrees to forget the existence of whatever portion of himself the cat is not using for the sake of not accidentally killing my kitten.
THEN LAST WEEK…Bagel told me a lie. The lie was, “I RILLY NEEDTER GOTER THE BATHROOM.” Usually when Bagel needs to go to the bathroom, he creeps up to me sideways and, in a sorrowful and apologetic manner, makes the canine equivalent of a gentle throat clearing. It is a barely audible whispery “ahem” noise in the back of his throat, coupled with sad down-tilty hound eyes that telegraph how VERY sorry he is to be a bother. He repeats this endlessly until his bladder explodes and he dies, or until someone notices and takes him out to use the lawnly facilities.
Last week, he came tearing up and LIED TO MY FACE that if I did nto take him to the bathroom IMMEDIATELY, me and my carpet would suffer many vile indignities. I was in the middle of drafting a scene in the new book, but he lied with SUCH vigor, threatening all manner of indoor biohazards, that I hit save and marched him forthwith to the backdoor. The NANOSECOND I cracked the door, he EXPLODED out of it, banging me out of the way and tearing down the deck stairs.
That was when I saw an A Bunnies was in the yard. It was a small brown A Bunnies, with its slump shouldered little back firmly toward us, eating up the long grass in the center of the yard. It heard the clatter of dog nails on the wood, and it looked behind it, and it saw 50 pounds of A Bunnies Destroying Befanged Evil bearing down upon it like a slavering train. ALL A Bunnies had to do was run under the back gate, not 20 feet away, but Alas! POOR A Bunnies lost its total crap.
A Bunnies panicked. It took off in an entirely incorrect direction, trapping itself in a corner of the tall fence. I then lost my total crap, picturing my backyard as a R’abbitoir: I saw four of the world’s most luck-free paws scattered to all the main points of the compass, a detached ear flopped into the azaleas, the head mysteriously golfed away or eaten, red entrails making a gruesome Christmas in the long green unmowed grasses that had called poor A Bunnies in the first place.
I started screaming, “NO BAGEL NO BAGEL NO BAGEL NONONONONONO.”
Bagel was deaf. Bagel was blind to all but an A Bunnies trapped in the corner. Bagel did not slow nor did he veer. He charged straight up to poor, paralyzed an A Bunnies, and, gentle reader, I am sorry to report….he MOISTENED it.
See, this is the world’s most diffident dog, and he regularly plays with a kitten about the same size and shape of an A Bunnies. He basically scooped up an A Bunnies in his cavernous, maw, careful not to bite down, and joyfully SUCKED HIM LIKE A LOZENGE for a damp moment before gently rolling an A Bunnies across the lawn.
There was a brief frozen moment where an A Bunnies, ABSOLUTELY SURE that he was dead, sat in a saliva-coated, unharmed heap. And then he realized he was FINE and he went leaping away, in the correct direction this time, and goozled under the back gate and was gone.
Bagel came bounding back to me with fur breath and asked to go back inside. I said, “You are a big liar pants. You did not EVEN need to go to the bathroom.” But by then he had already forgotten the whole thing and had NO idea what I was talking about. He also had NO idea why I took him inside and gave him and ENORMOUS lick of peanut butter off a spoon, but I know why. It’s because he is awesome. Posted by joshilyn at April 16, 2008 6:37 AM

OK - back to me now. Was that not laugh-out-loud hilarious? Joshilyn Jackson is an author and her blog is called Faster than Kudzu. I have it listed off to the left and it is worth checking out!

Thanks for making my day, Joshilyn and I hope some of you readers were able to laugh along, too.

Name that movie! (ADDED HINTS!)

OK - I have added some hints and hopefully not totally given them all away!
Pick 10 of your favorite movies
Go to IMDB and find a quote from each movie (or quote them from memory )
Post them on your blog for everyone to guess
Fill in the film title once it’s been guessedThese are your rules:
No Googling or using IMDB search functions (Don’t cheat!)
Leave your answer(s) in the comments

OK - here goes:
1. "I think he can hear you, Ray" the actor that says this is Bill Murray
2. "Yeah. 220... 221, whatever it takes" actor Michael Keaton
3. "Dr. Marvin, I'M SAILING!" Bill Murray, again
4. "Be the Ball." said by Chevy Chase
5. "Face it girls -I'm older and I have more insurance." Kathy Bates
6. "You know the difference between you and me? I make this look good." said to Tommy Lee Jones by Will Smith (I think I just gave it away!!)
7. "Like I always tell my clients - begin each day as if it were on purpose. " Will Smith
8. "It's not the years, honey, it's the mileage." Another give away: Harrison Ford
9. "There'll be no living with her after this. " Johnny Depp (and yes, he IS beautiful!)
10. "Chrissy, over on the wall, bring me the big knife. I want to cut my throat" Nicolas Cage

So - guess away! Most of these are pretty easy, at last if you know the kind of movies I like it isn't hard to figure out! LOL

Playing with blog settings

OK! I have now completely changed the appearance of this blog (about 4 times so far) and this is what I ended up with. Those who saw the old layout, please let me know if you like this one better! The more I play with Blogger, the more I understand what I'm doing -- at least I think I do - LOL.

TGIF!!! I thought Friday would never get here this week! I have big plans to be sequestered away in the "quilting studio" and finishing up some little half done things. I will finish the May wallhanging (she says firmly to self). Then, I have some secret little projects to get started - one of which must be done before May 5th!! (I have a niece that knows what May 5th is!!) hint hint Jessica!!

Here's hoping for a fabulous weekend for everyone!

Signs of Spring

When I got home from work today I decided to get the camera in hand and search out some signs of Spring in the yard. And yes, I actually found a few things!! I found some violas, a few grape hyacinths, a daffodil and some fierce Yorkies!

Up above is Oscar barking at me because I'm out taking pictures instead of feeding him. He can be very vocal when he feels dinner time is being infringed upon!

Here I tried to get a shot of Scooter, but as you can see - he just wouldn't hold still for more than a milli-second!

And of course, all three of them wouldn't dream of standing still for a posed shot! The neighbor's dog was on the opposite side of the fence, so there was no chance of me getting their attention (unless I was covered in bacon).

I think the most welcome sign of Spring would be a few days with the temperature above 50 degrees. So - weather gods, make it so!!

I joined a quilt group...

I joined a Quilt group --- Monday night was our first meeting. My husband thinks this is some mysterious "women's" club where we tell secrets and plot things, but it isn't anything as exciting as that-LOL. There are 12 of us and we agreed to meet on the 2nd Monday of every month. We are going to be making row quilts with each person picking out a theme for their quilt. Next month, we are to show up with a bag that includes: the first row of our theme quilt made up, plus any notes, fabric and patterns we feel necessary to help with the theme. Then, everyone picks a bag from someone else and makes a row to go along with that particular bag's quilt theme! Sounds fun and kind of scary because at the end, we will each have a quilt made with pieces from lots of different people! There is a certain amount of trust involved here! After a lot of deliberating, I have decided on my theme. It will be a gardening quilt and can have flowers, gardening utensils, picket fences, bird houses, bees - you name it and it's OK if it can be found in a flower garden. I need to select a color scheme next - I'm thinking bright colors, but no NEON bright fabric. It should be interesting and when I get my row made up I'll be showing it here!

Finished quilt!

Here is my most recent completed project [We'll talk about the UFO's a.k.a. UnFinishedObjects later]: A rag quilt with appliqued blocks. The photos don't do it justice (as usual with my photography). The soft colors combined with the wash/rag style make it look vintage and quaint. Right now it is hanging in my drab little cubicle at work and is doing an outstanding job of brightening up that space! The pattern is called "Sweet Annie" from the book "Cut, Sew, Quilt as You Go" by Sheri Bignell. Sorry the first photo is sideways - I can't for the life of me figure out how to rotate it using this Blogger software :) I have enough leftovers that I may make a little pillow to match, but if I take a pillow to work I'd be awfully tempted to use it (for a nap). Most of the fabric I used is from a line called "Serenity"and I bought it in McCall a few weeks ago.

the Haircut

After a lot of fretting about it, I finally went and got the ding dang hair cut off. Yes - it was frumpy and unattractive and having my hair in a pony tail 24/7 was getting kind of old. So, ta-da!

Here are some not very good photos of the new hair cut. It doesn't show the new highlights, which are very nice in my humble opinion. However, this will give you an idea of how very MUCH was cut off! And I am learning to use a new styling utensil: the flat iron. Interesting that you can create curls with this thing provided you master the wrist flick - which I have not yet managed... (practicing every day). I do like it and it is fast and fluffy! I'm not sure if Tim likes it, but it isn't on his head, so there....

Another note on appearance, since we looking at ME today. Soon, there will be an announcement involving teeth, their placement (incorrect alignment), and rearrangement. So, I'm thinking that to build the suspense and anticipation I will start dropping hints. Consider this one dropped!

Plagiarism??

I just realized why the title I chose for this blog sounded so good. I was recently with my sister and parents in Las Vegas and we went to see a comedian who's tag-line to fame is "I be thinkin'", so now I'm wondering, if subconsciously I am plagiarizing? I don't think so, but too bad for my so-called original idea.

Life in a Cubicle

Well, the first post - hm..... Since I spend most of my waking hours in a cubicle it is only fitting that the very first posting comes live from cubicle central. It is a frostly 60 degrees here and my space heater is running as usual. With my candy dish full and my lunch break just started I am ready and poised for action. But, I think I have stage fright - it feels like each key I press echoes ponderously and all my words are going to be judged by harsh no-nonsense East European She-Males. With that said, I think I'll call it a day. Posting One is over, baby-steps! (I'll be braver next time)