Awww.....

Gee Whillikers, Michele over at Heart and Hands has passed me the nicest compliment!
It's a GOOD THING to make people smile; everyone should do it every day. Multiple times! There comes a stipulation tho, (isn't there always?) that we do a meme using the letters of our name to describe ourselves. HEH!! Two letters (Su) don't come close to what I'm about, so I'm using the Bee part, too.
S- simple
U- understanding
B- Bi-pedal
E- ephemeral
E- eloquent

Too bad I don't have more of a name....
Now I need to name 5 others who make me smile:
Gypsy
Ms. Jan
Arrrgh matey, it be the Pirate!
New Kid on the block, Michael
And of course, Bren

Dang - 5 isn't very many! I have a lot more on my blogroll that I can't miss! Consider yourself tagged, and go forth and multiply - LOL!

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Poor Paco is so bored and lonely without his bud that he's getting into trouble. I told you I found him on the deck outside my bedroom, right? Well, this morning he was on the kitchen deck. And the gate was still chained, but he lifted the whole thing off it's hinges!! And once he figured out he could do that, the battle was on. He liberated himself 4 times before I finally set a sprinkler to keep him away from the gate. (Donkeys hate to be wet) I tried setting a ladder across the gate thinking he couldn't get close enough, but he got his head stuck in it and we had a moments panic before he shook it off. Picture a donkey with his face stuck in a 6 ft ladder - it was hysterical after the fact, scary during. Hunny finally came home and fixed the hinges so the gate can't be lifted up anymore so I wonder what tricks are coming next?

This is Paco on my yard's side of the gate, I am in his yard - doesn't he look innocent? There he is being all friendly, chatting with chickens like he comes to tea every day. He's really a love - he'd come in and sit on the couch if I'd let him, or take a nap on my bed!
Cuervo summed up a lazy Sunday:

Do cats have it right or what? If you look closely you'll see little rainbow reflections on the carpet and wall. Those are from a large crystal hanging in the window behind him. When I want to make him crazy I'll spin it a bit, and he tries so hard to catch the little things! DD calls it cat torture, but he falls for it every time, so he must like that game. I hope.
The Cocoa Cuddle is about 3/4 quilted. I stared at that for 2 days and not a single quilting idea came to mind! Usually the pattern will kind of tell you how to quilt it, but this one just whispered, "wouldn't you like to have a Snickers?" so in the end I did a meander all over it. My friend Leslie will gasp, but it doesn't look like a mattress, really!!! ROFL --
We're supposed to get a nice rain tonight and I'm SO ready. Our last significant rain was April or so, and that's a long stretch. It's soup and stew and chili and punkin pie time!! Yeaaa!!! Happy October everyone!

Almost done counts, right?

Considering that on wednesday I had four completed blocks and a stack of pieces, I'm OK with having an unquilted top by Saturday morning. I would have quilted it today, but I played outside for awhile. Took Paco for a walk, like the giant dog he thinks he is. And he loved it. I also shampooed the carpets in the family room and living room. Gee - it was a pretty full day!

"Cocoa Cuddles" - how's that for a chocolate yen? LOL -- the problem I thought I had with the 4 blocks shown previously was that they were not symetrical. Now I see that they weren't supposed to be. It was going to be bigger, but it was such a booger to piece that I stopped at 60". Now you have to see another vacation pic - this time it's me in the tub!

I got such a kick out of this -- it's HUGE!! I looks like a tub for Shaquille! I'm almost 6 ft and I felt like Edith Ann in her giant rocking chair. Great fun. Now I want one for my, ummm, living room? LOL!! Can I have real ducks, too?
Some friends called today to invite us to a show, they had extra tickets. I have to set this up by explaining that Hunny is quite a bit older than I, and didn't listen to ANY music after the Big Bopper died. Really, no joke. Anything recorded after that day is all garbage, and the only reason bands are so loud is to make up for lack of musical talent. Bring on Riders of the Purple Sage and he's a happy camper. So, Hunny talked to them (I was out with Paco) and this is how he told me:
"Jim and Lynn want to know if we want to go to a concert with them tonight, some woman singer"
"What kind of music?"
"Has to be rock'n'roll, that's all they go to. But if it's some woman it can't be that bad. Not like that crappy group we saw last year" {that would be ZZ Top, 2 years ago}
"Sure, why not?"
So I called Lynn.
"Hey Lynn - who's playing?"
"ALICE COOPER"
I think I hurt myself laughing. Oh dear - can you just see that??? Hunny is SO conservative, and SO narrowminded in his musical tastes that Alice Cooper would have caused him to stroke out.
But Jim and Lynn and I would have a heck of a good time laughing at him!!!

By the way, it's official now. HAPPY AUTUMN!!!

It's the start of quilt season!

Flowers and Fun stuff

I have my mojo back.....finally!!! After 4 dry months I finally have the itch to get sewing. YAAA!! So I've been finishing up a UFO - pictures tomorrow - and playing with a new scrap block. Too much fun! We "had" to go out to dinner with friends tonight and I didn't want to go. DH stood in my sewing room doorway counting me down - "We have 2 minutes......we have 1 mintute...we're gonna be LATE! Now C'mon!" Geesh - where'd all that patience go?

I've also been actively appreciating this wonderful plant outside our front door: Angel's Trumpet - what a great name!! It's certainly big enough for Gabriel. This is my hand, and I have by far the biggest hands you will ever see on any woman, anywhere. Bigger than most men, and this bloom dwarfs my hand. Plus they are so fragrant at night that the scent wafts into the house - it's heavenly!

I'll show my finished UFO tomorrow - all quilted and everything! But here's a fun scrappy block I'm working on:

I'm going to retreat in a couple of weeks, and I need a good project and this could be it. What do you think of the pale green for a background? I get tired of the same white or off-white backgrounds. All my scrap quilts look the same! I've had this big hunk of green sitting around, and what the heck - cut it up!

I have another vacation pic for you - 2 actually. You may have seen pictures of this gigantic Paul Bunyan and Babe; they live a couple hours north of us, and we always have to stop. It's a touristy place, but they have good bathrooms - LOL!

Now here's one you haven't seen - a close up of the giant:

Is it just me, or is this CREEPY CREEPY CREEPY???? They even have it rigged so he turns his head and flaps his jaws and talks! Someone sits in a crows nest somewhere and watches people walk up, then makes the creepy giant say things like - "What a nice purple shirt you have on" or "That's a cute doggie - what's his name?" CREEPY!!!!!! Thank goodness the ox doesn't talk. Oh yea, BTW - that's not a black shirt under the red - it's CHEST HAIR!!!! Eeeeewwwwww!!! All he needs is 6 gold chains hanging in all that fuzz.

Bleeeaaahhh - I hope you aren't eating!

Shop-Hop Fun!

We're home from our little jaunt, and it turned into a full blown shop-hop! DH patiently, even happily, scouted out every quilt shop in every little town that had one along the coast of Northern CA and halfway up coastal Oregon! I plundered, er, shopped, 8 stores in 3 days - a record for me. I enede up with 99 FQ's and 13 yards of pretty, and a few toys.

Hunnys indulgence on this trip was antique stores, so we hit every one of those, also. He's on the lookout for a perfect treadle machine for me, and old slot machines for him. We saw this old Singer like the one my Mom owned that I learned to sew on, in the bentwood case. I was horrified to learn that my Mom threw hers away some years back, and always thought I'd like to have one for sentimental reasons. So here's this 1910 - 1915 model 99 in pretty good condition. The case is pristine, not a scuff or scratch anywhere on it, and the paint and decaling on the machine is pretty nice, not perfect. It's missing the needle plate and it smells like rancid old oil, but all in all a nice find. This model has no reverse!

Here's the part that slays me every time. DH is a MASTER finagler, he loves the Art of the Deal. They wanted $110.00 for it, and he paid $30! I don't know how he does it, I can never stand to listen in. I get too embarrassed so I have to get out of range, but I'm always amazed when the total comes up. He has a gift!
We have also been idly discussing getting a boat, and in the harbor of Gold Beach, Or, we found my new ship:

LOL - I love this wreck. I've been watching it decay for about 4 years now, and I have a ton of pictures of it, I just love it. The most hilarious thing along coastal Oregon is these signs:

Holy Cow! Maybe hilarious isn't exactly the word I want, because the threat here is very real and has happened in the not-so-distant past. But the signs themselves cracked me up -
Now we're home, back to reality, and a get away was just what we needed. Refreshed and renewed, and raring to go. The day we got home I cleaned up my sewing room that has been usd only for junk storage all summer, and set to sewing - YAAA!!!! I'm even working on a UFO -- double YAAA. More on the trip later - I have hundreds of blogs to catch up on, from just 5 days - better get busy!

Outa Here!

Hunny and I need to get away - badly. Tomorrow morning we point the truck North and see where we end up. Presumably someplace in Oregon, because there just isn't very much left of California north of us -- lol! I have a list of quilt stores and Hunny has a list of antique stores, and we've packed a cooler and snacky things, and we're just going to wander. Adventuring, we call it. We'll come home Sunday.
Maybe.

My little donkey Paco is bereft without his friend Dolly. Tuesday when I came home, he was standing on the spot where she died. He doesn't want to play, or shove me around, or try to bite me - he just wants to bury his head against my tummy and stand there. Last night I heard something strange outside, and when I flipped on the floodlights, there stood Paco on the deck outside our bedroom door! Scared the snot out of me, briefly; then I had to laugh because I'm the one who didn't chain the gate closed. Dolly must have taught him how to open the gate, the chains were for her! He's going to have a stream of visitors while we're gone so he won't get lonely..... :-(
Hunny and I have been telling each other Dolly stories all week and being sad. I hope getting away will give us something else to talk about and lighten us up a bit! It's amazing what a hole that horse has left. That crazy, silly, mare, who loved to curl her lip up and lived to buck DH off onto his butt. LOL - there's some great stories about that old girl! Like the time she pulled her saddle off of a tree branch and dropped it into a creek! I thought I'd laugh myself sick over that one. We used hobbles on them when we were up in the mountains, kind of handcuffs for horses, so they couldn't run off. They can move, but very slowly. Well, Miss Dolly could hobble as fast as I can walk, especially if someone had a peanut butter sandwich. It was hysterical to watch! Ahhh -- good times.
More to come - see you on the flip-flop!

From Good to Bad

What a weekend. I'll be happy to get to work so I can relax. Saturday I spent the day down south with all the grandkidlets, a huge treat for me! Last Tuesday was my DD's birthday, and friday was my DGD and I, both. So saturday we partied. Took the two older girls to the park for a picnic and playtime, then off to visit both the new baby boys - ya-hooo!

3-month old Jayden is on the left, and 5 week old Nicholas on the right. It's going to be so much fun watching these guys grow up together - they are already so different! Well, stands to reason; look at this-

This is my two sons with their sons. (Man, I love this!) So each new baby looks like his respective Dad, and I couldn't be more pleased.

Saturday night when I got home I was met in the driveway by our oldest DGD, telling me DH's horse was down, and had been down for 1/2 hour or so. I went out and took a look and knew immediately this was bad. I called the vet out, and rounded up DH and set up floodlights. DH and the vet arrived about the same time, 9 pm or so, and pretty soon we knew we were going to lose Dolly. She had evidently had a stroke and her backend was partially paralyzed. We had to make the sad, awful decision to put her down. Her registered name is GO DANCING DOLL, and she lived 24 very good years. This horse was instrumental in saving me when I broke my neck in a riding accident years ago, on top of a remote mountain. She took DH a long hard 12 miles away to find help, and stayed strong the whole time, collapsing when she finally got back to her own barn.

That horse had more personality than most people you'll meet - one of her nicknames is Miss Lips - she can undo gate latches! She was with us for 16 years, a definate part of the family. To compound our sadness, Dh and I have been struggling with my old old dog, and had finally made a date for her to go to Heaven, this week. It's so hard to lose two old friends in one week. Our house won't be the same.

Fun stuff

I know, I'm supposed to be working on that baby pinwheel quilt - and I am! I have 10 blocks already done. But I've seen this around and it looks like fun, so I had to try it.

I). YOUR ROCK STAR NAME (first pet and current car)---Ceasar Century
2). YOUR GANSTA NAME (favorite ice cream flavor and fave cookie)--- Chunky Monkey Molassas
3). YOUR FLY GUY/GAL NAME (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name) S-Boe
4). YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)---Red Horse
5). YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)---Leigh Los Angeles
6). YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first)---Boe-Su
7). SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink)---The Orange Tequila
8). NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers)--- Joe-Ed
9). STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy)--- Lady Stetson Jelly Belly (ROFLMAO!!!)
10). WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names ) --- Helen Phillip
11). TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter)---Dennis Denver
12). SPY NAME/BOND GIRL: (your favorite season/holiday, flower)--- Autumn Lilly
13). CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”) Peach Jeanie
14) HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree)--- Yogurt Redwood
15). YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”) The Quilting Rain Tour

Oh my gosh - that #9 stripper name -- Holy Britney, Batman!!

Ok - Ok -- back to work. Now, why don't you copy this and put it up on your blog?

Grinding Gears

I just know there's a "gitalong" gear somewhere in my brain, so I'm going digging. The first thing you do when you're in the doldrums is buy fabric, right? So thanks to e-bay I got a cool set of CW FQs, lights only. I have a terrrible time buying lights, I always want the LOUD stuff. These are so pretty, shirting prints, and they'll go with a lot of stuff. The blue stripe is going to be the cover of a doll bed mattress, I think. It looks like ticking. Now, the next picture is a test.

This is the sum total of my work for August - I think. Or pretty nearly, anyway. I'm not a real big chocolate eater, but occasionally I get cravings. This was going to be the guiltless Chocolate Cuddle:

Here comes the test part. See anything wrong with that? OK, aside from the seams that don't quite match........anything else?

I also got Judys book, finally. I had pre-ordered it in May, then got an e-mail from Amazon saying it wouldn't be released till October, then read on someone else blog that they had theirs, from Amazon. HUH??? I checked it out, and sure enough, mine came very shortly. And it's terrific!! I love 9-patch designs, but I would have bought it for the border designs alone -- awesome. Hey Judy -- your next book should be border designs!

Finally, I got this goody box in the mail Tuesday from my pincushion swap partner -- two cute pincushions and a cool tea towel. I love the little mushroom house -- too cute!
Now if I can't use all this to get motivated, I'll have to start dragging out the stash and re-folding all of it and making it all neat.
Or maybe have a margarita and a nap, LOL!

Dog Days

I haven't fallen of the face of the earth - yet. Just going thru a rough patch with my back and not able to spend any time sitting - i.e., sewing or blogging. Consequently, nothing quilty happening, but maybe if I post my oldest UFO's it may shame me into finishing the blessed things whenever I can get back in the saddle. The first is about 6 years old (and I've only been quilting for 7!) and I really really liked it. LIKED - past tense. Now the big blocks look clumsy to me, and I would do the colors differently but it's big and could go on our king bed like my Hunny is always asking for.

This next one is the second quilt I made - real smart, huh? Sashed diamonds; what the heck was I thinkin? But in my ignorance I forged ahead. It's name is Niagra Diamonds, for all the spray starch I used. The reasons it sits undone is the crummy meandering in the sashings (???whaaa???) and the funky fabrics. I had just seen or learned about freestyle meandering, so I thought it'd look good in the sashings. WROONG. And I don't want to pick all that out. Interesting that I still love diamonds...........

I'm afraid to drag out all the rest of the UFO's - it might be over 20 and then I'd be embarassed to show my short attention span.
A long hot holiday weekend is for relaxing, right? HA HA I took that to a new extreme. Saturday morning was a super guild meeting and lunch out afterwards with girlfriends. The rest of the day was spent in bed. All day Sunday on the couch, flat and watching stupid TV. Sunday night we went out with friends to a restrauant 45 miles away, then Monday all day flat again. It's getting hard not to be discouraged. Hunny made beautiful shish-ka-bobs tonight for dinner -- Yuummmm..... and a decadent fruit salad to go with it. Much as I'd love to have a great big bowl of ice-cream I will resist because the bright spot is that I'm about to hit the 40# lost mark, and I threw away all the big clothes. So no ice-cream, I'll savor success instead!
Now I'm off to hit as many blogs as I can before I go flat again -- see you in the funny papers!