A Day Late

I meant to write a post yesterday celebrating my 3rd Blogoversary but it just didn't happen.  I had my Chicken group meeting last night and it was too late to write anything when I got home.

So here it is.  I've been writing for three years.  I think I still have a lot to say and once I get crafting again, you'll see more creativity.  I haven't knit anything in almost 3 months.  I think the pinched nerve in my neck is eased and for the most part the numbness in my hands has subsided.  Once it's truly gone, I'll pick up my sticks and string again and get going on all the projects I've conjured up in my head.

So without further ado, I'm having a giveaway to celebrate my 3rd Blogoversary.  If you'd like, you can leave a comment telling me which prize you'd like and what you'll do with it if you are the winner.  I will use a random number picker courtesy of my smartphone tools.

The deadline for posting a comment on this blog post is:  Saturday, March 3, 2012, at 9 am EST.  Leave a way for me to contact you:  email address or Ravelry user name, and I'll be in touch to get the prize off to you ASAP.

You have a chance to win either a felted flower kit (you supply the needles) or a great foundation pieced wall quilt kit with hand dyed fabrics (you supply the background fabric, etc.).

Good luck and thanks for reading!


ETA -- Giveaway is over -- Heather and Katy won!

Very Pink

Have you discovered VeryPink.com?  It's a great website for knitters and it's full of tips, super cute patterns, and lessons.  Staci has a great blog too.  I've added the link to my Link list on the right side of the blog.  Check it out!

GLHQ Quilt Show Photos

Yesterday's quilt show was wonderful and very well attended.  So many people complimented us on the quality of the quilts, the displays, and the vendors.  Even the food was delicious!  I've got lots of pictures so grab some popcorn and enjoy the show.

GLHQ Quilt Show

If you're within 25 50 100 miles of Lake Orion please come out and see our quilt show on Saturday, February 25th from 10-5 pm.  I think we have over 160 quilts hanging, including two of mine!  I'm so excited to see everything and shop the many vendors.  It will be such a great day -- hope you can make it.  I'll have pictures in a day or two -- stay tuned!

Tied Up

While I was up north at my sister Denise's last weekend, my roommate sent me a text message or two.  He asked me to stop by the outlet mall and pick up a few ties for him for his new job.

I've always had a hard time limiting my tie selection so I ended up with 10 -- giving him two week's worth of ties, 1 for each day of the work week. I'm way too practical that way.  I also picked out three pair of trousers, an argyle pullover sweater and a sweater vest.  The total came to $273.00 -- a real bargain considering all there was in my shopping bag.  Kevin was very pleased and said he'll be going back to the Van Heusen store again when he needs to stock up.  Oh, and he IS paying me back.

P.S. Thanks Sigrun!

Hard to Believe

My 3rd Blogoversary is coming up in only 5 days.  Time flies whether you're having fun or not, right?  Some days have been great and others have just plain sucked.  It's all part of life and you're always learning as you go.  There really is no manual and just when you think you've got it figured out, BAM, something comes along to test you.  I'd like to think I pass more tests than I fail but I suppose the final grade isn't handed out until I leave this life.  By then, I won't really care, will I??

Miss Naughty Girl

I barely got home tonight from a relaxing weekend up north when that no good thief of a dog stuck her sneaky snout into my backpack and chewed up a sheet of postage stamps.  Arrrrgggh!

She even looks guilty, doesn't she??!!  Well Miss Naughty Girl spent the rest of the evening in her crate.  And I will be making a stop at the post office tomorrow on my way into the office.

On the bright side, at least she didn't find the bag with my new skeins of Madelinetosh yarn for my next baby sweater project!

PTO

Woohoo -- long weekend with Presidents' Day on Monday.  Looking forward to doing absolutely nothing.  Love it!

Have a great weekend!!

The Thief

If you leave any sort of paper sitting around, Maggie will find it and chew it up.  She isn't fussy.  Checkbooks.  Used Kleenex.  Bills.  $5 bills.  Napkins.  Knitting Patterns.  You name it, she'll eat it up.  Sassy little girl.

Happy Valentine's Day !

I ordered two books from Amazon last week and they arrived today, just in time for Valentine's Day.  Great eye candy -- no calories or fat!

First up is a great book by Kim Schaefer:

I could make any one of the projects in this book.  Lots of great ideas for using up some of my hand-dyed wools......hmmmmm, she might even be a good option for next year's guild programs.

Next is:

If you're a fan of Quilting Arts Magazine, you'll love this book.  The lower quilt on the book front was made by Frieda Anderson, who will be the GLHQ November speaker/teacher.

I'm still ironing out the programs for the 2012-2013 guild year.  It's fun to play around with different speakers and topics, trying to make the year interesting.  A couple more tweaks and I'll be done with it and can let everyone know what to expect.

It's Back

My crafting mojo is back.  Yesterday I went to the quilt guild's Mystery Quilt Day with my Chicken friends and we had a super time.  We got a really serious snowfall overnight so it was tough sledding in the morning.  My roommate's truck wouldn't start so he needed my car to get to work.  Since I wasn't the chauffeur for the day, it worked out just fine.

I took my AccuQuilt Go with me but I had already cut up loads of wool so I really didn't need to drag it along.  I worked on making wool flowers which will either become pins for sale at my fall shows, or end up on a wool quilt that's still in the dream stage.  It felt great to get something creative done.  I'm so done with cleaning up around the house.  Even though my kitchen still needs organizing, especially since I bought more storage containers today, I will keep on using my right brain to make more flowers.  It sure is more fun than cleaning.....

Wool Flowers

I haven't been doing any real crafting lately.  It sure seems odd to sit down in the evening and have nothing to do but watch TV.  I got a new Rose of Sharon die for my AccuQuilt GO and I used some hand-dyed wool to practice cutting flowers and leaves.  Here's what I did the other night.  I still have to decide how to sew them together -- using Perle Cotton, beads, buttons, etc.  In the meantime I was just playing around a bit.

Pardon the crappy cell phone picture.  I'll do better next time, I promise!

Handy Dandy

Today on Worldstart.com I found the Tricksy Knitter website & blog for knitters.  Here's a useful way to chart Fair Isle patterns and play around with color options.  Look around the whole site -- tons of great information to be found.

Hurry.....

.......over to Alaskan Purl Designs for your chance to win a copy of Interweave Knits Winter issue and enough uber-yummy yarn to make Allison's fabulous mittens.  It's her first print publication and the mittens look great!  She's picking a winner at 8 pm Alaska time on February 8th so hurry up and leave a comment on her post.

Pretzel Jello

My roommate is in charge of making Pretzel Jello for the Super Bowl party he's going to tomorrow night.  I got my recipe out and put it on the counter so he would know what ingredients he needed to pick up at the grocery store.  

A couple of small problems.  He wants to double the recipe.  In my copy of the recipe it says you need 1 6 oz Jello.  He read that as 16 oz of Jello.  Uh, just a bit too much, especially when you consider he's doubling the recipe -- he bought 33 oz or 5 boxes of Jello plus a 3 oz box.

Next he bought fat free pretzels.  I don't know about you, but I HATE fat free pretzels.  There's so little fat in regular pretzels it's not worth losing the flavor by using the fat free variety.

So right now he's at the grocery store, returning all the extra stuff.  Oh, and the powdered sugar he thought was granulated.  

I think he needs to do more of the grocery shopping around here so he can sharpen his skills a bit, eh??

AndHeDrew

I posted this to my Facebook page today but in case you're not a 'friend' there, I'm posting it on my blog too.  The writer has put the inspiration I've been searching for down on 'paper' and now I need to take it all in.

I have a nephew named Andrew, too, and I still call him AndyDrew, even though he's an adult.  Funny coincidence. :{)

Are You Like Me??

If you're like me you haven't written a letter and mailed it to someone in ages.  We've all gotten too lazy just firing off emails.  A challenge has been issued by Mary Robinette Kowal to send a note of some sort in the mail every day for the month of February.  Are you up to the challenge??

I know I've got boxes and boxes of note cards I just had to have, sitting in my secretary, lonely, waiting to be sent out to someone......