Dec
12
Alexis – a conversation
Filed Under Laughing, Parenting, Reading | 2 Comments
Alexis has been practicing reading the story of Jesus’ birth. It’s a tradition in our family to read that passage instead of saying grace before the Christmas Eve meal. The youngest member of the family who is able to read is the lector.
When she finished reading the passage tonight, Chris asked her if she knew what the book she was reading from was. Smartly, she closes the book and reads the title aloud. “The Chocolate Living Bible”
That’s my girl!
Dec
8
A Hazy Quilt
Filed Under Quilting | Leave a Comment
Don’t faint. Two posts in as many days! I told you there’d be much to talk about during the holidays.
Here is little Baby J’s quilt all quilted up and in desperate need of a wash. I’ve had the quilting done since Thanksgiving, but I never think a quilt is “done” until it’s been washed and gets that wrinkly puckered quilt look. I should really get that done so that I can take it over there before she goes off to college.
I really love the backside fabric on this one. No, it’s not cut on the bias, it’s actually printed that way. And it is so silky soft that you almost wouldn’t know it is just quilting cotton.
I’m not the only one who loves it either, I took the unbound quilt to my local quilt store for advice on binding. The ladies there couldn’t find anything they liked with the front of the quilt more than the backing fabric. So instead of selling me something, they all agreed that I should “fake” the binding and roll the back over to the front. I’ve done this before, but never on something where the back would be readily visible. The one that comes to mind immediately is the tree skirt I made several years ago (total PotteryBarn knock off, I should really take pictures). Anyway, I digress… I didn’t want the edges on the back to be “flat” as if there was no binding, so if you look closely the quilting I did in a straight line around the edges is visible. It’s not perfect, but it presents a good enough illusion, I think.
You can also see that I did a somewhat more interesting quilting pattern than the straight lines on the last quilt. I did start to get bored with it toward the end but at least it went quickly. I also discovered on this one, that I really only like one kind of hand quilting thread (Sulky 100% Cotton) and only one kind of quilting needle (PieceMakers betweens). I tried a thread from JoAnn but it was so thick and it really was hard to get through the quilt. I ended up picking out several pattern repeats and re-doing them with the new thread. Never again. I’ll pay the extra at the quilt store for the good thread and needles!
Dec
7
16 Random Things
Filed Under Geeking, Knitting, Remembering | Leave a Comment
Rebecca tagged me with her 16 random things. The deal is, you write 16 random things about yourself, and then tag 16 friends to do the same. Unfortunately, the aforementioned Rebecca, is one of the people I would normally tag first with such a task.
- My earliest gymnastics memory is of Mary Lou Retton hitting her perfect 10 on vault at the 1984 Olympics. That Christmas I – and everyone else on my gymnastics team – got a Mary Lou leotard. You know, the one with the stars on one shoulder and the stripes on the rest of it? I think that was the only 3/4 sleeve leo I ever owned.
- I only see doctors I really like, and I’ll drive a long way to get to them if necessary. I figure if they aren’t going to listen to me, or they consistently diagnose the wrong condition (a la House without the almost dying part) they aren’t worth my time or money. Some of the pickiest people I know have asked me for MD references, and as far as I know, no-one has been disappointed yet.
- I hold a first degree black belt in Tang Soo Do (that’s TONG SOO DOH) and I regret every day that I’m not still training. I miss my fellow students and the training and sense of community within a school, but I try to live my life by the basic eastern principles that are taught with traditional martial arts. Some day I hope I’ll find the right place to train again.
- When I started college, my major was pre-med. I changed it to computer science after I took my second programming class. I have no idea what possessed me to take a second programming class because I hated the first one so much.
SomeMost days, I wish I hadn’t switched. - Over the years I’ve tried about every craft or art out there. Sewing, quilting, painting, writing, throwing pottery, collaging, crochet, cross-stitch and finally knitting. I think knitting is “the one”. I enjoy it more than any of the others, but I still dabble often. And I’d still love to take a class in large scale metal sculpture.
- I am falling apart. I’ve ruined tendons in both ankles, had knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus, and now there is something unknown going on with my shoulder.
- I wish I lived on Castaway Cay — only with out the hummingbird sized mosquitoes at night.
- I have an enormous capacity to forgive wrongs against me, but will hold a grudge forever against those who hurt my loved ones.
- In my junior year of high school I was diagnosed with epilepsy. Until the diagnosis – and sometimes even after – my teachers and counselors insisted to my mother that I was on drugs. My grades fell drastically and I dropped from the top 10% of my class to the bottom half.
- I love my house so much that I never want to move.
- On the last day of my senior year in high school, my English teacher told me that I am the most sorry excuse for a human being she had ever met. I left the classroom because I didn’t believe I had to sit around and be treated like that. But a cop in the hallway stopped me. When I told him what had happened and that I was going to the office, he pulled my teacher from the classroom to confirm my story, and she ADMITTED it was true. What a dumb ass!
- I dream about staircases to nowhere on a regular basis. These dreams are often so terrifying that I wake shaken for the rest of the day.
- I went to college out of state, and I’m still paying for it.
- The older I get, the more I look like my mother. I found a picture at my aunt’s house a few years ago. It took a second for me to realize that it was of me at about 1 yo sitting on my mother’s knees and not me holding my daughter.
- I totally can’t work a fax machine.
- I met my husband on America Online. He was chatting with me about how to break up with the jerk I was seeing at the time.
Dec
4
Yesterday Chris and I had this conversation… I had considered writing based on the conversation, but it is just so damn funny as is. And before people start bitching about goofing off at work, John told us to yesdterday. In a meeting. With slides and everything.
Names have been changed to protect the innocent gift recipients
me: godI could so easily spend $75 on yarn to get free shippingno comment?Chris: nope, I understand how that worksme: :)wellI put the fawn in the cart then went looking for kid friendly machine washable wool…found it$10/skein… 1 skein per kidChris: cool me: so that’s like 35 bucksbut then… I started lamenting giving my new petting yarn awayeven though I bought it for xxxxxxxChris: there is a blog in here somewhereme: oh godyou’re rightexcept your mom reads itso the question iscan I justify spending $44 on yarn that I will likely just pet?Chris: in the long run…. it’s cheaper than a cat me: LMAO that is so greatI just want you to tell me to buy it even though I was bitching about money this morningChris: thank you, I’ll be here all week, enjoy the buffetbuy it even though you were bitching about money this morningme: hehdid you cut and paste?;)Chris: pretty muchhighlighted and draggedme: I’ll probably kick myself on 1/1… but I can pet my new cat and feel betterChris: definitely a blog in thisme: good thing google auto saves these conversations
Nov
21
Boy have I been on a mood roller coaster lately. I keep going from pleased as punch – with an actual smile! – to moody and restless. At the beginning of the month I started writing that book I keep talking about. You know, the one I’ll probably never finish? Well it is NaNoWriMo after all! I’m happy to say I kept up with it for about 2 weeks before work became so absolutely overwhelming that the very last thing in the world I wanted to do was to sit in front of the computer again when I got home. No, I wanted to retreat to my comfy chair upstairs with a glass of wine and a big ball of yarn. So finally… even though I KNOW I’ll hate myself, I just gave up on NaNoWriMo. I know that it’s not going to be an easy thing to finish a novel. But trying to finish one while your employer has you working weekends too… well let’s just say impossible. And depressing.
So giving up the writing made me feel a little lighter, though, if I could have just given up work I think then everything would be better… well, until the bill collectors showed up. And I had to go knock off a yarn store to feed my addiction. Seriously, what in the hell do I need with these?
No freaking clue. But I just *HAD* to have them. They look so squooshy and yummy and fun. And warm. Have I mentioned the weather in Austin lately? I mean COME ON! It’s still supposed to be 70 degrees outside. This is central Texas for Pete’s sake. This cold sweater weather should not be here until late January! Though, to be fair, cold sweater weather to me is about 50 degrees. Which is why I will never move further north than Austin. Ever. Um, yeah so now back to the yarn. Yeah, I only brought it up so that I could insert eye candy into an otherwise completely rambling boring post. Click on the pictures to get to the etsy shops where I bought them.
And for those of you who are wondering, yes, I did finish the Butterfly dress… I even wore it on the cruise. But guess what? We didn’t take even one single picture. Which is actually ok with me, because I wasn’t thrilled with the way the underneath dress came out. (So on a side note, why is it that whenever I make a pattern using my actual measurements it comes out about 4 sizes too big and then I end up altering the crap out of the finished product and throwing away about half of the fabric I spent a small fortune on?)
I do, however, have pictures of my hair from that night. Seriously $35 to have someone else tease my hair into next week is completely worth it. I don’t do hair. You can ask Alexis who likely had burn marks on her neck from my attempt at curling her hair that night. Poor kid has hair just like mine. Sure it’s all soft and shiny until you come near it with a hair brush, then, forget it because it’s just flyaway city. I don’t think I’ve ever had a decent updo that I did myself. Even ponytails come out looking like I stuck my finger in an outlet.
Well, for all that rambling, maybe in the next few weeks there will actually be something interesting for me to share. It is getting dangerously close to Christmas, and there are now far too many babies to sew for -Anyone else noticing an explosion of baby girls? There should be lots of good material to pick from, if not just good eye candy. Until then…