Roots

Today I'm talking about two completely different kinds of roots.

First, I've been having issues lately getting my hair cut and colored.  The grey roots start popping out at me and I can't get to the 'groomer' fast enough.  For several years I was going to a nearby barber shop where Kyle coiffed my hair for me.  Things were going great until one day in April when I showed up for my appointment and he was no longer working there.  Not good.  I hate finding a new stylist the way I hate finding a new doctor.  Ugh.  But I looked around and decided on a shop close to my house.  The price was right and I got in the following week.

Ashley did a nice job on my hair so I made another appointment this month.  Last Friday I sat down in her chair, she put my cape on and left to mix my color.  She reappeared with tears in her eyes.  Her father had been taken to the local hospital by ambulance and she asked if she could leave.  She insisted on mixing my color up and said another stylist would take over.  Absolutely not, I said, you need to leave right now!  So she took off my cape and I left.  Right now every time I look in the mirror I swear those roots are getting longer and longer.  I'll try to get back over there later this week.

The other root issue I've been having has to do with my flower beds.  I bought a Groupon back in March to have a landscaping company send out three guys for three hours for $99.  Seemed like a bargain to me since my hands are so bad, gardening is completely out of the picture.  I called, waited, called, waited, called some more, waited some more, and finally today I had had it.  I called again at 4 pm only to find out they were already at my house!  So much for calling the Friday before they come out.

I wanted to be there to make sure everything I wanted out got removed and everything I wanted to stay stayed.  I bolted out of the office and zipped home.  Too late.  My beds were pilfered.  The sad thing is I had to ask them to remove the invasive grass and Snow on the Mountain that they had left in the beds -- something all too obvious to me!  Bleeding Hearts - gone, Columbines - gone, Japanese Balloon Flowers - gone.  Butterfly Bush -- cut down.  Arrgghh!

On the bright side -- the yard looks better, naked, but better.  Now I have to figure out what to put in its place.  I think I'll hire a different landscaper for that!

Changes Ahead

When you're overweight you often don't see yourself that way.  Or at least you don't think it's that bad.  Pictures don't lie, they say, and they're absolutely right.  One of my problems is that I don't have a full length mirror in my house so I never really see how bad I look.  In my mind's eye I'm the same as I was 30 years ago but in reality, that's far from the truth.  I'm disappointed in myself -- that I let myself get to this point.  It's so much harder to lose weight than it is to put it on.  Wouldn't it be great if you could just flip a switch and make it all go away??

I was talking to my next door neighbor today.  Her husband had a mild heart attack back in March.  For the last 6 weeks they've switched their diets to near-vegan and he's had an incredible turn-around in his 'numbers'.  His triglycerides were 683 and now it's dropped to 130; his overall cholesterol was 226 and now it's 90; and he's lost 15 pounds.  This is remarkable to me.  They no longer eat meat of any kind, sugar, white products, or alcohol.  In addition he quit smoking.  I'm so used to seeing them on their front porch in the summer evenings, he relaxing with a cigar while they each sip a glass of wine.

I can't imagine adopting their diet regimen -- it's so extreme for me.  I suppose if I was confronted with the same prognosis as him, I could buckle down and make the switch.  Right now I can't imagine going meat-less.  I love grilled meat in the summertime.  I enjoy a great piece of fish.  I just need to eat less meat, a bit more fish, and overall, less of everything.

One thing is for certain -- I can't keep packing on the pounds without having some serious consequences.

As If.....

...I have run out of crafty ideas, I spotted this project that might be leaping to the top of my list.  I love the idea of re-purposing vintage linens.  When I'm able to knit again, I might try this recipe for scrubbers.  Many thanks to the Haby Goddess for the instructions and inspiration.

Grillin' Time

Yesterday the weather was so nice but a bit on the warm side for me.  I guess I like it at 80º F or less to be comfortable and 87º is too much for me to do too many things outdoor.

I did buy a new Weber tabletop gas grill yesterday and got it put together in time to make a nice steak dinner.  I even cooked the mushrooms on the grill -- a first for me.  Usually I saute them in a pan with butter but I'm back to dieting again, so that's a no-no.

It's small but most of the time I'm just cooking for myself.  The steak and mushrooms came out great.  I also had some new-to-me Golden Beets, which were in my latest Door to Door Organics box:

I added a tossed salad, low fat Marzetti Ranch dressing, and called it good!

As for my latest attempt at losing weight, my doctor took one look at my latest stats and said 'Try Weight Watchers -- it really works'.  So since I usually listen to my doctors, I joined the online version along with a co-worker and together we hope to encourage each other.  So far I'm down 6 pounds so something's going right.  Must...keep...going....  I think the grill will help me cook more healthily too.

Another Quilt Show

Yesterday my friends Sue and Mary headed out to Lansing with me for the Capital City Quilt Guild show in Lansing.  It was a beautiful day and a lovely quilt show.  Road construction -- not so lovely!  Arghh!!  But I did have one driver honk at me and ask what my license plate meant.  Love my fiber, I said, and she motioned like someone taking a pill and I said No!, like quilting and knitting!  Gotta laugh when you can when you're stuck in a 6 mile long back up.

This was one of my favorites, a version of a Barb Adams design.

Scottie quilt for Joyce, who couldn't come with us.

This quilt was very interesting.  The bottom half, all quilting, is a reflection of the design on the top half!

Isn't this wild animals in shoes quilt a clever one?  Sassy monkey is not wearing their shoes!

Love the croc in Crocs!

Here's one of Mary's favorites:

Sue's favorite:

Another one of Mary's favorites:

Loved this one, could be good in wool, too.

Hmmm....this one could be great in wool too......ideas forming here!

I really enjoyed this quilt -- the bear's face is unbelievable -- be sure to click on the photos for more detail.

Inspiration for me to get my half square triangle blocks made up:

Round Robin quilt, done by one person -- interesting.

I like the piping in the binding edge of this quilt:

Hand appliqued, hand quilted beauty:

Knitting and Physics -- Who Knew??

I bet you never thought about using a knitting needle for physics experiments.  I can honestly say it never crossed my mind but here's a great video courtesy of Amanda at Worldstart.com showing an experiment conducted at the space lab -- very interesting!

Love These!

Over on the Craft Gossip Felting blog I saw the cutest little homemade felt boxes.  Be sure to check out the tutorial, courtesy of How About Orange blog.  I just might have to make some of these boxes.....

Tidy

This is a picture of my living room:

I put away most everything that was out in anticipation I'd be getting a visit from my grandson Denver on Mother's Day.  I would have cleared off the coffee table had he come, but he did not.  Instead Kevin and I met Holly and her family at a nearby restaurant for brunch.  We had a really good visit and Denver is getting so big.  He's clapping his hands, whistles, and was fascinated by the light fixtures and fans:

He loves to take water from a straw!

I bet you couldn't see all my sewing tools and machine in the very first picture, could you???  The Singer Featherweight table fits right over Maggie's crate -- how slick is that??

Now I can easily pull the table out from the wall and begin to sew whenever time allows.  I love it!

1000

1K.  10 x 10 x 10.  999 + 1.  10 to the 3rd power.  Any way you say it, this is my 1000th post!  Amazing, isn't it??!!  I think this event is deserving of a giveaway, don't you?  Well, unfortunately I haven't planned very well lately, so the giveaway will have to wait.  Rest assured, it will be a good one.

In the meantime, crazy things have been happening all around me.

Friday I went into the local Bruegger's Bagel shop and my eyes nearly popped out of my head.  Really!  In one of the booths sat a man beside a woman.  Not odd at all you say?  Well that's before you come to understand that he had a pair of tweezers in his hands and he was picking something out of the woman's hair.  EWWWWWWWW!!  I had to say something when after passing by them a second time the public grooming was still going on.  I broke up the break time of the cops standing outside and mentioned that it was creeping me out that they were doing it IN the bagel shop.  They agreed and entered the shop to make them cease and desist.  

Now that I've painted such a vile picture, I think I'll just head run off to bed.

QR Readers

Do you have a QR reader on your smartphone?  I had one but it never worked.  Now I'm using Esponce QR Reader.  Scans appear lickety split fast now.  Do you know what I'm talking about????  

Check out this post from Fun with Barb and when you get down to the 11th quilt picture, use your QR reader on the quilt from Deirdre Abbotts.  It should take you to Deirdre's website!  She is so clever!! 

Keepin' On

I'm not able to knit right now but I am working on sewing projects.  I got the sashing strips cut for Erica's quilt and I was lucky enough to eek out both 2" and a 4" borders from the cream fabric.  I was sure I didn't have enough and since I bought that fabric at Little Quilts in Georgia, I knew I'd never be able to get more, as surely it's gone by now.

Amazingly enough to me, my quilt measured up even for the top/bottom, and sides.  I know that sounds simplistic to most quilters but for me it's an accomplishment!  I hope to have the borders on by the end of the weekend.  There might be a little distraction Sunday, known as Mother's Day, which could derail the process.

Long Weekends

I love long weekends.  If I was the queen of the world we would all have long weekends and only work 4 days a week.  That would be heavenly.  I wouldn't want to work four 10 hour days, just four 8 hour days!  Long weekends are so nice to get something done for a change.

I went to two quilt shows, weeded my front flower beds, sewed a wool bag, which I can't show you because I think I'm entering it in the Wool challenge for my quilt guild in June.  Tonight I made up a huge batch of laundry soap using Ivory soap, 20 Mule Team Borax, and Arm & Hammer Laundry Boost.  I used the concoction tonight to wash a load of towels and so far I'm very pleased with the result.  Plus, it costs about 5¢ per load -- can't hardly beat that!

I also sewed some of the scraps from Erica's wedding quilt.  I bought a tiny 1 1/2" square up ruler

 and used it Saturday for these blocks:

Ordinarily I would have thrown out the cutoffs from the blocks but this time I decided I needed to do something with them.  They could be incorporated into the quilt or they could be their own mini-quilt, just a bunch of 1" finished squares.  Hmmmmm.......

And this was what was leftover after the trimming:

And now I'm off to bed -- I need a good night's sleep before I head back to work in the morning.  Back to the grind....

Friday Afternoon Show

After a quick lunch at Culver's, Judy, Mary, and I headed to the Macomb County Quilt Guild show in Roseville.  It was my first time visiting this show and I have to say, the caliber of quilts shown was not as nice as the Oakland County Quilt Guild show or the GLHQ show.  The quilts at the Ortonville show were much nicer, too, but the MCQG show had better vendors.  Good reason to go!

This quilt must have been from a workshop, there were several versions at the show:

The next two are very similar, I had to look twice!

 Here's Mary and Judy, admiring this beauty:

This one was probably my favorite -- so perky!

I did find a few things at the vendors.  I'll save them for another post!