Weekend

Friday afternoon I drove Sara to Bible Camp thru Northeast Nebraska. The scenery was beautiful with the new falling snow and the tree's frosted with it. Just east of Niobrara is the Santee Reservation, that's where I stopped to snap this picture. This eagle was frolicking in the snow with it's mate(even after working with them at the zoo I can't tell boy from girl eagle) when they saw the truck coming this one flew to the dead tree and posed for me. I pulled over and backed up just a tad and Sara got the camera out...........almost missed it because the camera was trying to die. The eagle sat patiently and waited for me to take it's pic, then it looked at us and flew off to meet it's mate down the hill. I love watching for wildlife while out on a little drive.

While Sara was at camp I made her a new hoodie, my little Sock Monkey girl.......

This is what I worked on during the Super Bowl. Sara and I both took naps before the game so I missed the first quarter, then I had to eat dip and chips, then work on this, then eat ice cream....then finish this...

I thought I would stick in a pic of a set I finished awhile back, the hat is a rough follow of a pattern from debcrafts.blogspot.com I don't read patterns well but hers are easier than most to follow.

Here's the finished hat and it's mates made from my yarn and Grandma Allen's yarn. The fuzzy yarn Mom and I shared when we were doing a lot of postcards. All three of these are child size so they will be sent off to children somewhere. I think two of them I will send to my little cousins and the other will be charity.

I love to watch the Super Bowl for the half time show.

• Scarves are in, just look at Roger.......
• Wardrobe malfunction on Pete, to much belly hanging out!
• Gotta love vintage ROCK!
• 12 year old asking if the Who was younger than me............hmmmmmm let me think about that one.

I also love to watch the commercials.

• Sara's favorite was the wild toys......ok the sock monkey won her heart.
• I definitely noticed a theme with the advertising this year....half dressed men! Icky! From the office casual day....to the guy sleepwalking across the African planes...to the fake sumo wrestlers..........oh and lets not forget the 'pants' commercial.

I thought it was nice the Saints won, it's always exciting the first Super Bowl win and the quarterback with his son, that was really sweet!

A few more things...

I got Roseann's Valentine banner done this week, I quilted a heart pattern across it. Oh boy am I out of practice! Sorry for the lousy pic's, it's dark and coooooold outside and there's no way I'm going out there tomorrow either! (everything is wet due to the rain and snow so no outside pic's)

I bound 4 little hot pads for my kitchen, the black was already quilted and cut off of an earlier project. I have no idea why I used the peach stripe fabric on that one....I just grabbed the first binding scrap in the basket and sewed it on, then I thought about it and did the other 3 in blue to match the kitchen. Nothing fancy for my kitchen because with all the "cooks" in my house they just get ruined as fast as I make them.

I also finished 36 QAYG blocks for Heartstrings and Jay's Nursing Home Project. They are all done in pastel strings with the same backing for all the blocks. Check out the fire starter in the right top corner of the pic, Bradley will be happy I saved it for him.

Oh and I have to throw in a goat pic once in awhile too! This is Hope and Charity, my two Fainter Kids.

I also put binding on this Heartstrings quilt this week. It's in the wash tonight and heading out in the mail tomorrow.

I do seem to be feeling a bit better tonight, I'm heading to bed and hopefully I can sleep the rest of it off. Kev is at work, he got a bug on the main system and it's sending out millions of emails...........he has till Monday to find it and fix. It's gonna be a long weekend.

I love to make scarves, Kaylee is modeling the ruffle/boa scarf and matching hat. No one in my house would wear it.....Kaylee loved it so it's now hers. Sara is modeling the raspberry fluff scarf, it does have a matching headband........somewhere.....and Andrew is modeling the purple fuzz scarf, can't leave that picture hound out of any shots!

I won a drawing from drivingmissstacy.blogspot.com in December(wow that was a long time ago) (I tried to copy/paste her blog but it won't let me today) I want to thank her for the adorable sock monkey bag. As you can see Sara is a sock monkey fan and she took the bag from me. Check out Stacy's other sites on the web, she does the String Thing Challenge and has an online quilt shop too, Sew Far Sew Good Quilt Shop . Thanks again Stacy, you made my day and Sara's too.

Not much going on here today, trying to get over feeling lousy. I even called in sick to work! The only thing I'm going to do is get things ready to mail to my mom and some charity things I have made and ready to go.

Gray Monday

It's another gray day here in Nebraska........... I slept late, fed the goats and petted the cat and now it's almost noon. So I guess it's time to get busy and do something productive with my day. Laundry (never ending) and maybe dishes. I think maybe I'll cook some lunch for myself and do a little looming or crochet before heading out to the studio. I do have pic's to share so I will be back later to blog about them.
Kev and Brian cooked last night so my kitchen is trashed, I'm glad they can feed themselves but the grease mess is unbelievable! Kev told me last night when he came into work that he would clean the kitchen tonight........that's when I knew it was baaaaaaaaaaaaaaad! Brat's, fried potato's and baked beans all cooked in the house, oh my! It was so cold outside he couldn't get the grill lit so they grilled on the new gas cook top. Like I said I'm glad they can feed themselves!

Quilters Home

I was laying in bed reading my newest Quilters Home tonight when I realized something just wasn't right.......no one was calling me sweetie, cupcake or snookums. No sharp witted comments on Quiltzilla's. No cute puppy pic's to oh and awe over. NO MARK on the cover!!!!! I started to freak and went cover to cover looking for him.............I finally found him, on the little cardboard magazine subscription card stuck in the middle of the magazine. Lets just say I'm disappointed, and slightly disturbed that I spent money on a magazine that is not what it pretends to be. I wondered why Mark's face wasn't smiling at me on the newsstand, now I realize I missed the previous issue because I overlooked it, it looked just like all the other magazines coming out of Golden Colorado. I'm sad, I loved Mark's Quilters Home, it's just not the same without him. Needless to say I will not be spending my hard earned quilt money on this magazine anymore, it's sad when they try to copy something so good only to come up short. Hey I'm sure there are lots of quilters out there that are relieved to see Mark gone but those quilters won't buy the magazine just because Mark's pic is gone from the cover, it's to late to entice those few back and the rest of us are the loser's left with this watered down, pale, lifeless magazine.
(Note to the new Quilters Home, you should replace the subscription cards! False advertising or just to cheap to make new ones?)

pep talk-3

Brrrrrr it's cold outside, and it got cold in my studio before I got done with all 36 blocks! I decided to assemble the last 29 and do all at once.....ughhhhh....I'm down to finishing the corners and trimming them all up. I really tried to finish them all tonight but it was to big of a job and I have an early morning taking the kids to the eye doctor. Well anyway the pep talk was a success, I finally got some sewing done!

pep talk-2

Ok my little pep talk must of worked a bit, I went out to the studio and made 7 QAYG blocks for Heartstrings/Jay's Nursing Home Project. I have enough backs cut for 36 total blocks, 7 are done! Sara made dinner so I am on break, she is getting to be a good cook. (Pasta casserole) Only one problem with sending Brad out to start a fire today............he used my string bucket as a source for fire starter! I told him anything in the brown wicker basket was starter(I throw my scraps into it with newspaper) well he used some scraps out of the bucket sitting next to the wicker basket.............oh well.........guess I will forgive him this time, he started one heck of a fire and it was warm when I got out there. I'm going to move the bucket!

I did a pillowcase and kits at work last week, it's the start of the Million Pillowcase Challenge.

I also finished the Dog Quilt last week, to bad I misplaced the directions and can't write up the pattern...........ugh!!!!

Well off I go to sew some more, maybe I will post pep talk #3 when I get done in the studio.

Pep talk

I'm going to use this blog as a little 'pep talk' to myself today. I'm having a hard time being motivated to do anything this week. So when the kids get home I'm gonna have Brad help me start a fire, haul some wood, and throw some trash away. Sara gets to feed the goats and Josh can start some laundry. I'm then going to spend the afternoon in the studio sewing, not sure if I'm going to quilt but I am going to sew. I will be back later with pic's of my progress........

Grey

Ok in my last post I told ya I didn't want to show the grey.........well this is my tree line just east of the house. From what the weather man says this is whats in store for us the rest of the week and into next. Oh wait.......throw in a little rain, sleet and snow for good measure and every ones mood will just be 'fine and dandy'!

I love a little Halloween in January, this is Roseann's table topper, she will scallop the borders when she binds it. We found it's so much easier to quilt then scallop, I hate pinning wavy edges into the quilt machine.

And last but not least is Luann's quilt. She made this for her niece who is getting married the 6th of February. I am so glad I took overnight to sleep on the decision of whether to quilt it with blue thread or white thread. Last night I had in my head it would be white, went to quilt today and thought blue so I called Luann, made her decide. She took the decision out of my hands and picked blue. I love the end result, like she said white would of looked 'cheap'.

I finished my round at the bar and don't have to go back till Sunday, wow, two whole weekend nights off.........what will I do with myself? Ha-ha I will probably sleep, and that's where I am headed now, got a whole day of inventory and sewing tomorrow at the quilt shop.

Thursday

My next project for work...........

I finished this today for work, it's the first of the Strip Club we're offering.

I have plans for It's a String Thing Challenge........blues and yellows

Greens and purples...........

And black, white and red started.............

I'm in a rut......these gray days are killing me! I took a pic but it's so gray I hate to show it on this blog..........I did some sewing today finally, it felt good to get a few things done. I am going to go shower and get ready for work now, no one wants a bartender that smells like goat!

Whats going on

Sara wanted me to blog about what she bought for her friend's sister and new baby. She picked out the present by herself last weekend while in Norfolk shopping. The baby shower is Sunday and she's really looking forward to going. I'm giving a quilt that I've already showed somewhere on this blog. I'm also giving one to the baby's Grandparents for them to keep at their house. I have a feeling I will be working during the shower so Sara will have to deliver presents.

My mom wondered what I've been working on and why I haven't changed my blog for awhile. Here's the reason...........Lucky and Oreo take a lot of time and their sleep schedule kind of sucks! The kids do help with feedings and such so that helps a lot. I went to catch a goat and put her and the babies back in the chicken house today and found my favorite goat Heidi having twins, no wonder the other was out, she was running away from the new mommy! If I can keep all 9 alive now I will have quite a haul to take to the Exotic Animal Auction in March.

On the crafty side around here I have two hats to take off the looms (gotta find my big yarn needle) a scarf to finish for myself and a headband/wrap to make yet. I'm close to finishing the top of the red and black quilt for work, need to quilt a few things for other people. I have a cream and lace scarf to make, and I need to rev up my embroidery machine!

All this and cook, clean and do laundry...........oh and starting Thursday night I work non-stop thru the weekend.

Outside

The drifts were high as you can see. Sara and I tromped around a bit this morning.

The pigs, goat and chickens are doing fine. Sadie Goat is going to have babies any time, we are going to put her in the other chicken house to keep the babies safe when they are born.

The stupid ducks made it thru just fine. I still don't understand why they have to sleep in the middle of the driveway.

This is our new addition to the family as of last night. Kevin was looking out the window last night before heading to bed and this goat was out behind the tractor. He thought at first it was a cat with her, nope, it was this sweet little baby girl. We went out and got her, looked for another(only found one) and brought her in to warm up. Kev and Brian started a fire in their wood shop and made a goat pen beside the stove. Then we had to get the momma out from under my studio, Brian ended up crawling under and scaring her out. All this at 1:00 a.m. !!! I am glad to say as of now baby and momma are doing fine.

Hard to take a self pic and look glamorous with a baby goat...........

Snowed In

UGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! I'm going crazy!!! Let me out! Never thought I would say this but I'm ready to be out! Please let me go to work! As soon as the roads are open around here I'm gone!

Snow day

Here's a pic of my brother Kelsey and his Little Devil Quilt. I know it's a year late........ugh!

Here's two of the many throws Kristin and I did for presents this year. The pink one is Helena's and the cream one is Kelsey's. I used yarn out of Grandma Allen's stash for these. Just love them! I have one left to do for Sara then I'm done with this years Christmas......my kids are last on this list because they don't worry, they know they will get them sooner or later.

I took the time to make a few quilt as you go blocks. I got 7 done this evening. I will be sending these to Jay from Heartstrings yahoo group. He is collecting QAYG blocks for his nursing home project. I love doing their special projects, this time it's these and pillowcases for the Million Pillowcase Challenge. I will be doing a few cases also, the shop is going to be a drop off point.

I also took a little time to clean off half of my sewing desk. (I only took a pic of half cause the rest is piled as high as my head) I am working on this quilt for a strip club at the shop. I have 14 more blocks to assemble then 2 borders, won't take long when I get back out there tomorrow.

I found a few backs for my mom's quilts so maybe I will sew them up tomorrow also. There is one for Kelsey and one for Josh, (Brad's is done) and one extra. I also have one for Mom but there is no hurry for that one because I won't be sending it to Florida, just going to hold on to it till further notice.

I came in early tonight because it was getting cold in my studio and I was to lazy to go out in the dark for more wood. I am planning a nice quiet evening snowed in with my family(and brother-in-law) they are cooking chicken and noodle soup with mashed potato's, Kristin and Sara made cookies and peanut clusters. They are playing Scrabble also. I think I'm going to find a blanket and crochet hook.

one of these....

By the time we're out of this latest blizzard I'm going to need more than one of these!!!

Gotta love Winter if you live in Nebraska(or anywhere in the US right now). Heck it's even cold in Florida were my mom is......bbbbbrrrrrrrr!

Well anyway I've been out in my studio a little today, Brian started my fire and it's nice and toasty in there now, I came in the house for a bite to eat and I'm heading back out to take advantage of the heat. I got the Dog Quilt done for work(no binding yet) and I'm sure I can find something else to quilt before I get tired. When I get tired of quilting I will sew up my red/black/white quilt for work. Ok off I go again thru the snow............

More Christmas

Interesting decoration for a Christmas tree.......my nephew has a snake infatuation, he's 7. We're pretty sure he didn't put the snake in the tree, it was to high for him to reach. I'm sure someone(sister, cousin) hid his snake from him.

My sweet girls are getting old! 2 sophomores and one college freshman...oh my! Shyann goes to UNL and is studying elementary education. Kristin is at Northwestern studying secondary education English with a minor in theater and speech. Jill has changed hers again and now wants to work for the American Heart Association in the business end of it. Not sure what she told me her major was, long title and I forget easy.

I gave my dad and his wife this quilt for Christmas. It matches the family room in the basement. I love this quilt...........it was hard to give away.
On the way to work this morning........gotta run, gonna be late!!!

In between time

I took over 50 pic's of my cat last night.

Can you tell I really like Princess Mutant Cat.....other wise known as Snowball. I thought it was interesting that the good eye(blue) glows red in the flash but the bad eye(brown) is black in the flash.

Thought I would share my decorated bathroom with ya all too. I made the curtains and trimmed the shower curtain with fabric that was from my stash. I had enough left for 3 throw size quilts to make too. The goodies on the shelves are from the girls at quilt group and the decoration on the back of the toilet is from Luanne. I also had a Happy Holidays rug and tan rugs to match and snowman soap dish. I think it was fun to decorate and didn't take much to do since it is the smallest room in the house. I actually bought a box that I'm going to label and put everything in so next year it's just as easy to do as it was this year.

Here's Kristin doing homework with her two helpers. Not sure if the dogs got much out of the Spanish flashcards.........

I also got a pic of her crocheting and watching T.V. tonight. She is finishing the last of the gifts we are taking with us Friday to my Dad's house. I am really tired of those blankies............I am ready for this week to be done, I did spend the day in my studio, only quilted one quilt but I cleaned and sorted a lot of stuff. Oh do I have UFO's and WHIPS and PIGS! Oh well as of tomorrow I will be down one UFO after I bind my Dad's present.

I have to work at the quilt shop tomorrow, then at the bar for New Years. Come back from Co. Bluffs on Saturday to work that night and Sunday too. What can I say, it's cash.

Hey did anyone notice the new thing on the right side of this page? Well anyway I joined the Stringthing Challenge blog. We're going to make string quilts and donate them locally. Ok I know I already do this but it's fun to join others for inspiration and motivation. I got the pic of the button and the site info but I have no idea how to make it a real button that you can click and link to, and my smart computer literate family doesn't blog, just me so they are no help. Oh well I need the online motivation of others right now so this is my new favorite blog. Check them out, (sorry you have to copy and paste the info to get to it)

After Christmas

I know it's after Christmas, wow, where has the year gone? I decided to look back at my blog from last January today. Surprise, surprise, no goals for the new year written down. I guess I was goalless or maybe I thought it was stupid at the time to set something I knew I would never finish. Well anyway I think I will set some for the new year this year.........

1. Family quilts. I have quilts planned for most of my family, maybe writing about them will help me finish them in the next year.
2. Project Pink. Only 3 or 4 to go.
3. One Million Pillowcase Project. The shop is participating so this should be an easy goal.
4. Finish the last of Grandma Wilson's quilts. 4 left to quilt.
5. Keep my crochet hook moving! I have scrubbies, scarves and blanky's to work on.
6. Grandma Allen's yarn, I want to sort and plan a few things, Kristin will help me with this as she is a crochet machine.

And last but not least I want to finish a few projects for myself.

Christmas Morning

Would you call this a winter wonderland? It's beautiful from inside the house.....out there not so much. Behind the tree in the middle of the pic is my driveway, usually you can see fence and field, even the tree line a mile away. Today it's just grey, grey and white. Brian (Kev's brother) is without power in Royal, 5 miles away. So far we have power and so do the folks down the road.

The present opening started with kitchen gadgets, here's Brad with his, just what every 14 yr. old had on his list this year, a potato peeler. Yippy!!! Ok so he wasn't so thrilled, but the cell phone and Ipod docking station made up for it. Santa brought them all handheld video recorders too, home movie time!

Sara loves her cell phone! The boys also got xbox live cards, now they can play online games for 3 months. Kristin got new pillows and a new cell phone also, it's a little red slide phone with a full keyboard. She picked it out herself, her dad is a softy when it comes to electronics and such.

This is my new present, a finished kitchen island. (and a man cooking) He told me it would be done for Christmas and he kept his promise. The only thing left is an outlet cover, there were none in town so next trip to Norfolk I will pick one up and he wants a few shelves in the cabinets. 3 more bar stools and he still needs to shorten them by 4 inches. Kristin finished painting last night also. I'm really enjoying this day home with the kids and Kevin, so I'm off to do the last of the dishes and then take my annual Christmas day nap!

Christmas Eve

Santa finished his duty just before midnight, wow! That's the earliest he's ever finished around here. I put the stockings on the tree this year, just a few bare places to hide due to no decorations. I just didn't have the energy (still fighting tooth ache) for hanging a million little things on it and besides Kristin and Josh are taking it down Saturday. Thanks to my Mom we do have bows all over it, Sara did that for me earlier today. We spent the day cooking and decorating, oh and a lot of cleaning! Not sure who will be here tomorrow for the fun but the prime rib is in the oven, the potato's are ready to stuff and the dips are made. Waffles for breakfast after opening presents. It's just going to be us 6 in the morning, until 10 or so, then family will start showing up. The snow and wind might keep some at home but I would rather they be safe than stuck in the snow! As I sit here writing I can hear the snow hitting the north facing window, it's really unpleasant out there!
Dinner tonight was simple, potato soup, crackers and cheese ball plus spinach dip and roasted red pepper dip. I whipped up a batch of haystacks for dessert. After dinner the kids opened their annual Christmas Eve presents, new jammies! We also watched the 6th Harry Potter movie.

Brad with Sammy, Kristin, Sara with Sadie and Josh in their new jammies. (yes Sara loves Sock Monkeys and Josh loves the "headband" that came wrapped around the set of jammies-gotta love those silly kids!)

I always let them take a 'silly pic' this one is the funniest with all of them in it...I think Sara is trying to eat Sadie, I am really proud of my silly kids, they are the best presents a Mom could ask for. MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!!