That's what Friends are for ...

So ... I've been away for a bit.

Let's just say that after that l'il bout I had with salmonella, we had a week long hospital stay involving PDaddy and then just as we were bringing him home we discovered a "slab leak". For those not in the know ... "slab leak" = evil.

The good news is that all the grandkids are here with more children coming this weekend. The good-er news is that we have the most marvelous friends in the world, many of whom that have superb plumbing and drywall skills. Other friends have amazing cooking skills. Others have done our laundry without so much as a whimper. Thank you. Thank you, thank you.

The good-est news of all is that we are home, we have running water, and these grandkids are still keeping us in grins. Once again we have too many blessings to count.

p.s. The above picture was taken when one of their mothers discovered them in The Kingdom playing "office" with some sort of Business that involved thread spools and quilting gloves. When questioned where they found the quilting gloves, Miss Dub promptly replied, "In the glove aisle, of course."

p.p.s. Oddly enough, I won another give-away from this blog, through my friend at this blog. I know it's unfair, but what can I say?

I've got plenty of Somethin' ...

So ... having been a bad, bad blogger*, I might be tempted to use an excuse the fact that I've just got nothin'. Except that it's pretty clear here, that the somethin's I do have are ... quite something. Take Miss Dub2 for example, pictured above. She is clearly too scrumptious for words.

These two sisters are quite the pair and I miss them more than I can say. But every, every single day I look at these pictures (and more) and we send the most loving vibes back and forth. Can you feel them?

Here is Miss Dub1 last weekend as she excitedly prepared to go see a live production of "Cinderella". She absolutely loved it until half way through when she proclaimed, "I'm not so much into plays anymore." Now you've gotta admire a girl who knows what she wants.

And here is Mr. Gee making wishes in the fountain. If he wished he could come and see us, then that is one magical fountain. The Gees will be here this weekend (along with Ms. Vee ... er Gee ... er Are?). Li'l Gee and his mom will stay on through the next week. I will be a quarter past giddy.

So ... admit it ... I have definitely got somethin'.

*I will put it out there that part of my bad blogging ways can be attributed to a little case of salmonella that I had last week. Seriously.

Heaps O'Fun

So ... my sewing room (and possibly my life) is reduced to a series of Piles. Projects that are current, but not neccessarily urgent. Projects and Piles that are beginning to make it harder to work on the next Project and/or Pile. I've already show you a peek of P#1 (above) where it's clear I'm having a whale of a good time.

P#2 continues the beachy theme with some seashells gathered at the ... Stash. You might recognize the striped fabrics that later turned up as cupcake papers here. One cannot have enough pink stripes in their life, that's for sure.

P#3 was started just yesterday, although it's really the only P/P with any urgency. These paper-pieced beauties will be part of a quilt (wall hanging) for my beloved Miss Dub2. She is growing so very fast that I must get it done before she is hanging out in her room with her friends and having a quilt with her name on it seems embarassing. And just in case you are wondering ... her name isn't "MOE".

The funny thing is that these piles do not induce pressure ... only delight. I cannot say the same thing about the piles of papers in the Office.

And that pretty much sums up why I do what I do.

So ... apparently fabric is not the only thing I lose track of. It's not the only thing in my closet that has slipped into the realms of "what the heck?!?". About a week ago my fabbo sister-in-law was here with her family and the two of us spent a couple of hours up in the kingdom where she very graciously feigned interest while I showed her every little thing I had sewn since possibly the seventh grade.

What an interesting journey that turned out to be.

Take this quilt above, for example. I do believe I made it in early 2004 after PDaddy had given me a book for Christmas on New York Beauties by Valorie Wells + another one on paper piecing. It gave me the opportunity to practice my paper piecing skills and in my head (a very ... very ... dangerous place to be) I was taking a stab at "Art Quilting". My first and last stab, I might add.

I do have to say that I was more pleasantly suprised than horrified when I unearthed it last week, having never given it a single thought since mid-2004. It cools off the kingdom a tad what with the temperatures approaching 110 again.

So do tell ... What's in your closet? If you want to spill on what's in your wallet, I'll listen to that too.

smells fishy to me ...

So ... the PDaddy has been spending the morning going over his fishing ... stuff. He mutters phrases from time to time that sound vaguely familiar like "Wow, this is older than I thought" ... and ... "where the heck did this come from" and "I can't even remember buying this". I can not tell you how good that made me feel. I tried to confess to him that these are the very phrases that I mutter when I go through The Stash. I'm not sure he heard me.

I didn't repeat it.

As you can see, I have been doing a bit of fishing myself. These beauties from the deep blue sea are my latest hand applique project. I have a somewhat similar machine applique project in the works. I may or may not wear sun screen while working on them.

Does your husband have a hobby/sport/electronic obsession that helps you to justify your own crafty/sewing/paper obsession purchases? Do tell.

(Yes ... I would be the one who placed the package of goldfish to give him something to aim for. He has yet to catch one. You can't say I didn't try to help.)

Sprinkles

So ... it's August. A little cooler than July*. It's Block O' the Month time. Fun time. All gooooood.

I found this block to be particularly delightful, and not just because of the sugar related theme. My favorite part was finding the perfect vanilla frosting in one of the latest (2009) Christmas lines from Moda. (I just happened to have a Charm Pack.) Can you guess which one?

I am very sorry about the lack of other sewing posts. Life's pretty hectic right now but I have planted some seeds on a couple of new quilts. Really I have.

Thanks for your patience.

*(It was not only the hottest July in history around here ... it was the hottest month in history. I kid you not.)

I've seen the Light ...

So ... the above picture is of my dining room with the light fixture that hung above my table for almost 20 years. If you are wondering just how the heck I was able to clean that thing ... just remember that I asked myself that question for almost 20 years. This year my children came together and bought me a new chandelier for my birthday.

Question: Were they more tired of looking at the dusty panels during family dinners or were they just tired of hearing me complain about it?

Who cares?!? Here's a picture of my new fixture. Easy to clean, twice as much light and best of all ... it doesn't reek of 1991. Thanks kiddos. I will try really ... really ... hard not to find something else to complain about to take its place.

grandchildren sandwich

So ... I had a pretty incredible week. As I prepared to go to ChiTown to hang out with the newest member of our clan (hereafter known as "Miss Dub2") I played and had fun with L'il Gee who came over to hang out with PDaddy while I was gone.

I had a week full of splendid fun with Miss Dub1 and her beloved sister, Miss Dub2. Please note that in the picture above, that brown thing is not my arm ... it's the chair.

One of the highlights was taking Miss Dub1 to Kids Snips to have a haircut. As you can see, she was very ... very proud.

Then when I arrived home I had a little more time with L'il Gee. Please note that the red thing is not the couch, it's his Dad.

I am missing those GKids right now, that for sure.

Did you know I have three?

Is it Heaven or is it Chicago??

It's in the upper 70's outside, and I'm with the most delightful company.

Sigh.

The Dub Debuts

So ... I'm a grandmother once again. Of this beautiful, scrumptious, heavenly girl born yesterday, July 23rd at around 2:30 CST. She weighed 8 lb. 7 oz. and is 20 3/4 inches long. There is lots of dark hair underneath that sweet little cap and a very proud mother next to her who somehow knew that this girl was to enter this world without surgical tools involved, (even though odds and many doctors thought otherwise.)

Her name??

Aaah ... you know I wouldn't reveal that anyway, but the truth is that even we don't know that yet. That's because this little girl is just full of wonderful surprises. Just like her mom, Mrs. Dub.

I'm leaving this weekend to get the chance to squeeze her and kiss her and have slumber parties with her big sis.

I'm the luckiest Nanny in the world.

Fuss Budgeting

So ... I got nothin'. Zippo. I absolutely refuse to discuss the 110+ heat anymore and the fact that it has now been combined with sticky-icky humidity. Seriously ... I refuse to talk about that. What I do have is my July Block for the Block O'Fun over at Bunny Hill. I really, really had fun with this one. Maybe because I wasn't under other sewing pressures while I did it.

You must know that my cardinal rule in sewing is that I must ... must ... sew from The Stash. This rule also applies to embellishments. Which explains why I had 3 of these precious stars to sew on ... but not a fourth. I'm okay with it. Really.

I took my time to fussy-cut the leaves and the flag and the lambie's tail just so. I don't know if you can zoom in on her pink tail, but I can definitely say that it has character.

And just in case you are wondering, this is the scrap that I found for it. I don't even think this scrap is originally from my own stash. I believe it came from this daughter's stash and was left behind at some point. Like I say ... I always sew from The Stash, but I didn't say to what lengths (thievery?) I will go to to add to it. I have even stooped to dumpster diving after classes I teach. Pathetic? Yes. Clever? You betcha.

Oh ... and for all you Mrs. Dub fans out there waiting for some big news from me? Not yet. But I'll let you know ... I promise.

Why, I believe I feel cooler already ...

So ... Pam of PKM fame mentioned this morning that she is beginning to sound, ahem ... older ... due to the fact that she is obsessed with discussing the weather. Count me in. Seriously, it's hard to find other blog-worthy material when sweat is dripping onto the keyboard.

And other more unpleasant places.

In order to take my mind off the swelter (and pick up a 32 ounce Fountain Drink at Circle K for only 75 cents) I found my way to a couple of my favorite bargain haunts: The Half-Priced Book Store and ... duh ... TJ Maxx. At HPBS I picked up this less-than-a-year-old book that actually released a breeze from its pages when I opened it the first time. Seriously. Take a gander at that jar of sea glass. If you look closely you will see a pair of blue-tinted sun glasses peeking out.

Aaaaah. More breezy-ness.

Then at TJM I found these heavenly blue notecards. From Crane. With a heavenly price that was not originally assigned by Crane. Someday I will write a note on them. From the beach. Feeling breezy. This brings us to the two most important questions of the day:

How are you managing to cool off? and

How often do you take advantage of a 75 cent* FD at Circle K? (Did you know you can get an even better deal (64 cents*) at QT where they used filtered water?) One day you will thank me for these practical bits of life-altering wisdom.

*these prices are including tax (.59 + tax = .64 and .69 + tax = .75). The fact that I know this off the top of my head does not bode well for my relationship with my FDs.