time?

Who has time to blog on Turkey day? I do when I'm in between coloring my hair and making scalloped corn (ok I'm not making it, I'm supervising) Sara is collecting ingredients as I type. Things are going pretty good besides not being able to yank the neck out of the turkey this morning, good thing Kev was around to help. The veggies were chopped last night and the dips made. Stuffing is in the crock pot and the wassail is on to simmer. Potato's peeled and gravy 'stuff' is boiled. Kristin mopped the floor and the extra dishes are washed. I'm going to go wash the color out of my hair as soon as my brother gets out of my shower and maybe even have time to have Kristin highlight it..........ok that might wait till after dinner. I work tonight at the bar, I think all the out of town people will be drinking tonight, tired of hanging out with family kind of thing......who knows, if I'm slow I'm decorating the Christmas tree.

I work at the Quilters Candy Shoppe Friday and Saturday, I'm hoping to be busy! I hung the new sample quilts Tuesday because I didn't want Roseann climbing the ladder. I'm looking forward to the holiday season there.

quick and easy

This is my quick and easy baby quilt. I fell in love with this FQ in the middle and thought it would make a great boy baby quilt. I tried to do it all with FQ's as a challenge to myself.....almost possible. I have the directions written down and the steps photographed, someday I will type it up all fancy....I think it makes a great gift size or would be simple enough to mass produce as charity quilts. I have made another just like it and have 3 or 4 more cut out. I love to do simple quilts in different colors just to see the possibilities.

I'm tired of cleaning for Turkey day.....tomorrow will be a looooooooooooooong day!

busy-busy-busy

Today has been a busy day! I spent most of it in the studio quilting and sewing. I got 6 quilts quilted (ok most were baby or throw size) and a top pieced. All of them were quilted rather simply as the ones with puffy batting look better with larger quilting. I always say why put puffy in if your gonna quilt it flat? Well anyway I don't have a darn thing to show off in this blog, I didn't take any pic's of the quilts I worked on and the top is not ready for pic's so this entry will be on the boring side. I did cut a few pillowcases for QOV and the pillowcase party on Heartstrings this weekend. Mom gave me some RWB fabric and it's ready to sew up now.
I am toasting bread for stuffing right now, Sara got bored with it so I'm finishing it, burnt half of it already! Oh well I'm sure there will be plenty....Brad thought I was burning up the house so he came out to check on me, I think he just didn't want to go to sleep yet. Sara and I watched a Turkey day special on Food Network, not sure we learned anything but it was fun to watch. I'm sure we will have our own TV worthy moments between now and Thursday!

Oh I do remember vaguely a lesson on crochet when I was 9 or so........I think the memory of my little brother and his buddy using my project for a Spiderman web kind of warped me, I do remember chasing them down with my found project(in the neighbors back yard with the dogs) and beating the tar out of them! Hehehehe maybe that's why I really suck at crochet!

weekend

Not a lot going on this weekend I guess, heading to the grocery store with Sara. My little Turkey day hostess needs to learn how to shop for her groceries I think. Check out mom's blog for Sara's hostess present, it's so cute! http://flicshasews.blogspot.com/ My mom is awesome! I am looking forward to having company but not looking forward to cleaning house!
I will lock myself in my studio later today for some power quilting, lots to get done for other people's presents! I have a few ideas I want to do also so I better get moving on it! I watched TV again last night with the family (sci-fi night) and made another scarf, this one is dark grey. I'm down to putting fringe on it and making a hat to match. I timed myself and with watching TV and a snack break it took 3 hours to make the scarf. I don't think that's to bad for almost self taught not sure what I'm doing kind of crochet. All I know is I can sew a heck of a lot faster!

just a few....

This pic is some of the many quilts that have been donated to charity by me or my friends. I really wish I would of kept track over the years now, I know the numbers are in the hundreds for all the charity quilts I've had a part in creating. Tonight I set and watched TV (not normal for me) and I made a scarf to send overseas to Kosovo. I also finished a bright pink one that I need to make a matching hat for a present. I work tomorrow at The Quilters Candy Shoppe and then the weekend is free. I'm hoping Kev gets all his repairs made and they can finish picking corn without me. Right now the grain cart is broke and so is my truck so the only way to haul corn out of the field is with the gravity wagon and the bins are so close to full that there is no way the rest of it will fit in them. Kind of crazy around here this week......

Nice weather

Today is sunny and clear, big change from the last week or so. I guess it's back to picking corn today, I sure will be glad when we're done! I've been working the last two days and I'm getting worn down, today won't help I'm sure. I love my job at Quilter's Candy Shoppe, its great to play with fabric and help people pick and choose when they need it. Had a very nice lady in yesterday who was wanting to match some pink floral she was given, we changed the pattern from a green quilt to a pink and tan quilt and it's gonna be really pretty when she's done and just a tad more modern than the 80's mauve and mint.........hehehe! I got really busy in the afternoon and it was great, I ended up putting over 30 bolts of fabric away after closing time.

Sara will be hosting Thanksgiving this year so I have been collecting recipes for her for the basic things we all just 'know' how to make, today it was mashed potato's. I think she is really looking forward to cooking and such, I'm not looking forward to cleaning house though! http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/ This is a fun blog and most of the stuff sounds really good, I get a kick out of what the gal's kids will and won't eat, sounds like my house!

whats going on today...

Today I am working off a smoke headache(spent to much time at the bar last night working) so I decided to make up a list of things for my kids to write about at Thanksgiving. A few years ago we had a book about Christmas and it was full of questions, really made a person think about things and what to be thankful for and memories and such. So I thought with Kristin being home it would be a good time to repeat the fun. (did I mention they loved it the first time but were 5 years younger?) My topic is Reasons you are Rich. I think it will be a good Thanksgiving writing.
The last two days have been very productive, 5 quilts for other people have been quilted! Whooohoooo!!! Only 8 or 10 to go...........ugh!!!! I did quilt the cutest Husker quilt though, loved the red and white. Today I will do the black and red quilt, that way I don't have to change thread in the machine, then on to blue thread.....then black....then brown.....green.....pink.....wow I think I better get moving!!!

Zoo

I guess I should of mentioned where the animals went in my earlier post. Most went to Colorado Springs to a refuge. Fred the Camel is moving to Wayne with a nice family with kids and I haven't heard where the last three tigers are going, just waiting for final plans to be made. I'm very glad they have found new homes, AND the boss can get some much needed rest. He has been working everyday for the past few years thou everything and he needs a break!

It's snowing........put a stop to harvest for the day, this has been a long fall and I'm ready to be done with it all. Lots of breakdowns and my jobs have put us behind. Today I'm going to go to the studio and quilt my brains out, not that there is a lot to quilt out so I better be careful and not overdo it...hehehe!

Pictures of sewing?

I can't find my pic's I took of my latest projects......got interrupted and don't think they got saved after I downloaded them.....hmmm guess I will have to make the projects pose again, hehehe! Sara is going to the Zoo in Omaha tomorrow with her class and she is taking my camera. Now she has a wonderful camera that she got for Christmas but I don't know how to take the pic's off of it and Kev was working so I just gave her mine, after I deleted the pic's on it, oh well it's not that hard to retake them, just can't show them off on here tonight. I have been busy working on Christmas things, nothing I'm going into detail about though. I'm on tractor break because of the weather, there is a dusting of snow on my studio deck, just about slid off the steps because of the rain we had before the snow, gotta love the ice! Tomorrow is another sewing day, I will do a few paid jobs and maybe some more presents....

Zoo Nebraska

O'Ryan just wanted to be petted this day, he rubbed the fence till I scratched his shoulder and back. Hard to get a tiger to pose for pic's, they pace and I keep missing their faces, I have lots of pic's of backs.

I can't remember her name to save my life, I've always called her Pretty Girl. She is a Lucistic Coyote. That means she is not an albino because she has blue eyes. Pretty Girl is 17 or 18 years old I'm guessing, we got her from the Grand Island Zoo when they closed. She was found by a Western Nebraska rancher as a pup and given to the zoo because she would of never survived in the wild due to her color. She is so old that she is blind and deaf, I couldn't get a good pic last year because she would see me and run, this year she didn't know where I was so I could get her pic if I walked up slow and quiet. I hope she survived the trip to her new home.

Arthur is my favorite King of the Jungle! He seems to like me for some reason, I sit with them a lot and he lays by the fence in front of me, if the tigers come near he fights them away, its awesome being that close to such wonderful animals! Victor, William and Cassie are in the background, as I said before it's hard to get them to stand and pose because they are always pacing.

I will miss the wolves a lot, they are wild and spooky creatures. I am impressed with the way they never got used to me and never trusted me like my other wolves did. I really miss Denali and Whispers the most....they were like pet dogs.

And Fred is just Fred. What can I say, Fred loves me so much he is always to close to take a good pic, he wants me to scratch him all the time, he follows me everywhere and I even had to bribe him with 6 loaves of bread to keep him busy while I got around to take everyone's pic. He is such a big pet it's pitiful!


I am really sad the zoo is closed and the animals are gone, I loved working there and really got attached to them all, its been almost a week and this is the first I've been able to write about it because it has bothered me so much. I know it's best for them to be where there are more people to see them and love them but I still am going to miss them....

Combine

Today we spent money, tomorrow there will be a new (newer than the last) combine in our fields. Kevin spent the morning patching holes in the grain pan of the old combine, the metal is so thin he had a hard time welding patches in and making them hold. I'm scared to think of how much corn got left in the field by falling thru the holes! I am waiting on the weather now to hold off just a little so we can play with our new equipment, they are talking rain then snow.......ugh! I think I will go out to my studio and play awhile, ok I will probably start quilting, I didn't quilt a single quilt the month of October and Christmas is sneaking up on me!

Halloween

Halloween was quite eventful around here!!!! The bottom pic is Kelsey and his girlfriend Helena getting ready for Chad and Shannon's wedding. Yes they had a Halloween wedding! Kelsey was the undead bridesmaid and Helena the undead groomsman. I wish I had a good pic of the bride and groom but I don't. I was helping pick corn so I snuck in and took a few pic's of them getting ready and then when they came to the bar (I had to work) after the wedding. The middle pic is them with my kids before trick or treating. The top pic is Chad, Kelsey and Ricky trying to pick up truckers as they drove by the bar.........hehehehe

Harvest

We are finally picking corn! Ok today I'm not, I'm the official cook....but tomorrow and the rest of the week I will be in the field driving the tractor/grain cart. I am amazed how little this old combine leaves in the field, I really have to search for ears of corn for goat snackies! Only a few breakdowns, one we thought was going to be major but Kev fixed and so far it's working. Last night I helped him fix the tractor, well I held the light, and he put on a new water pump. His mom ran for the part while I was at work and she even brought him candy! (thanks Mom!) Today Kelsey and Brad are helping, it's nice when the guys are all busy and everything is working like it should, even Sara is out riding on the combine today.

New puppies

Sammy is a daddy again! Nikki had babies a week ago and Anna brought them up with her for the football game. (Orchard played Arapahoe in playoffs) Nikki is a Yorkie and Sammy is Shih-tzu so now we have Shorkie's! I don't know if they are all spoken for so maybe they will need homes in 7 weeks.