Sewing weekend with my sister!!

We've had this weekend planned for 2 months - it  was finally here! How fast time flies!! She got here Thursday morning, it's already Sunday and I just dropped her off at the airport! But we had a great time. Did a little shopping (wink, wink) on Thursday and a little more on Friday. (wink again). Got down to business in the sewing room Friday after shopping, then out to dinner. Back to the sewing room. Visited my daughter and grandkids for a little bit on Saturday.  Back to the sewing room. We did eat now and then. And over our morning coffee , we looked at magazines, new patterns and other stuff we bought (during that little bit of shopping we did :).

Denise's sewing machine didn't fly well, even as a carry-on and she had trouble with it the entire time.  For awhile on Friday night, both our machines were not working right!!  It was like Candid Camera - hers had a problem,  mine worked. Then hers worked, and  mine didn't.  At 10:30, both appeared to be working so we called it a night. That was exhausting trying to figure out what was wrong with 2 machines that had been working perfectly. Saturday morning, we really knuckled down and got to it. But her machine gave her so many probems, it was difficult for her to like her project, given that the machine stitching was not up to par. Mine was working as it should,  so I was able to work on mine.  But in the end, we had a lot of laughs, lots of M&M's, and lots of talking!! 

                                                                  Denise hard at designing

                                                                   Denise ironing

                                                          Here she is - hard at work !

                                                                  the important stuff

                                                                Denise rippin' it out

                                                           Denise's project (unfinished)

                                                         Someone wants some attention

                                                                 Work in progress

The staredown

                                                                     Jeannie hard at it

                                                           Jeannie's turn to rip it out !

                                                             Jeannie's project (unfinished)

Tubing at the lake

Well, we decided to take the boat out yesterday. Took the grandkids Belle and Ian, and stepdaughter Mikayla. This was Ian's second time tubing - his first was when he was about 6 and he got  booted off and we really had to whoop it up about how much air he got and how cool it was so he wouldn't be afraid.

                                                          Belle, Ian and Mikayla

This summer, he knows how to swim and he actually WANTED us to try and knock him off.  Rick never intentionally gives them a really rough ride, but he made some really good waves for them. Both Ian and Mikalya got some air between them and the tube! But Ian did get knocked  off once, and rolled on the top of the water like a rock skipping across it! He thought it was great.
                                                               
                                                               Belle and Grandpa

Since Belle is such a girly girl, I never dreamed she would even want to get in the lake. She said this was her first boat ride too. The tube wasn't in the water 10 minutes, and she said she wanted to swim. Not get on the tube, but she wanted to get in the lake.  When we stopped for lunch, I put her over the side  and Rick got in too. She had a blast. She did get on the tube to sit, and wanted us to let it drift a little farther from the boat, but she didn't want to tube.

                                    Ian on boat, Mikayla and Belle on tube, getting ready to float

All said and done, it was a great day. Temp was about 85, we took lunch with us and ate on the lake. The kids literally ate their sandwiches IN the water !!  No whining, or arguing....yes, it was a good day.

A Day at the County Fair

So I know it's been awhile since I posted - been kinda busy with stuff.  We went to the Dakota County fair last weekend because my stepduaghter was in the Demolition Derby. While we don't whole-heartedly support this activity, we don't have much say in it, so we unwillingly  "support" it . This was her fourth derby and second one this season (she did 2 last year).  She won this one -$500 -  Good for you Ali!!  and she earned this win - got in a lot of good hits, didn't use the "avoidance" method to stay in until the end and even kept her car running and moving while it was overheating and had a rear tire hanging on an angle.

                                         Ali (winner) and Rick (Dad)  with what's left of the car

If you've never been to a Demo Derby, I have only one thing to say: TAKE EARPLUGS. It can be a lot of fun to watch (especially if your kid isn't in one of the cars).  The pickup truck class is the most fun, because the trucks are louder, get up more speed and have way better hits! The trucks are also the loudest and smelliest - lots of smoke, sometimes there's fires, and a whole lot of mud flying around.

                                         Our car is the dark one in front of the towtruck
                                          (yes, the cars get towed or forklifted off at the end)

I took my grandson and his friend and after the derby, they hit the rides. Buying a wristband for unlimited rides was the best thing I did that day !!  Fair food isn't cheap either. Among other things, Hubby had cheese curds (yuck), the boys had cotton candy, smoothies , drinks etc etc. But the BEST thing I had was a Spaghetti Sundae !!  I'll get a picture up in a bit. They literally put stuff thru a pasta roller to make it look like spaghetti. The "meatballs" were chocolate covered cherries. It was FABULOUS! Somehow it didn't taste like "just" ice cream, although it was.

                                          Ian is to the right, blue shirt in orange bumper car

The boys wanted to go to the derby pit and see the car (what's left of it) so I wandered over to the Exhibition
Hall to look at at the quilts. What a disappointment. Not sure how these fairs are judged, but about 85% of the quilts had ribbons. First premium, second premium, third, fourth fifth premium, Judge's Choice, People's Choice etc...there must have been 30 categories. And for the most part, there weren't that many  quilts there, and even less that looked  that great. This is a pretty big Fair too. I think I'm going to see about entering something in that Fair next year. Maybe I can get Best in Show!!1 hahahahaha

Recipe of the Month on today!!

I have been gently reminded by several people that I have not gotten the recipe page  up and running yet. Can't say that anymore !! I posted my first recipe - the Best Banana Bread Ever!!

Be sure to try it - you will not be disappointed. This bread (or muffins, or mini loaves) never last more than a day in my house. It's good by itself or with butter. It freezes well too.

Check it out!

Check out my newest WIP !!

Finally got around to taking photos of my newest project. I think I'll actually keep this one !!  Take at look at my WIP page and see what you think.

My sister reminded me I haven't posted my recipe of the month yet......yea yea yea...I'm working on it.

A Post-It note life

Sometimes I look around and wonder how people ever got thru the day without Post-It notes. No, really, at any given time, I can look around me and see them ....they're everywhere. Sticking out of books and magazines, on the garage service door, the fridge, you name it. These little marvels should be one of the Seven Wonders....no kidding. Not only are there Post-It notes in various sizes, there are Post-it flags and Post-It arrows. And the colors available......right now, in my possession, I have bright blue, orange, canary yellow (the original color), purple and white. I have flags in blue, red, green and yellow, plus arrows that are odd shades of pink, green, blue and orange..... amazing. And I personally have 7 different sizes of these fabulous little stickies.

I stick one on the garage door to remind hubby it's trash day, or trash and recycling day.  They work great for little love notes in his lunchbox. (yea I know, we're kind of mushy still).  I 'll  write something on one at work and stick it in my purse so I'll see it when I get home. There's dozens of files on my desk at work with them on the front and flags sticking off papers in the file. They make great bookmarks, and the arrows are perfect little pointers. I use them in my sewing room, in cookbooks and on calendars. My husband even has one covering the  "brights on" icon (for the headlights) on the dashboard, because it's too bright for him in the dark (crybaby).

I can't remember a time without these litltle marvels. Yet,when I Googled it, I was amazed to see that Post-It notes were only developed in 1974 and not sold in stores until April 6, 1980!!  Who invented these wonderful things? A guy at 3M in Cythiana KY named Art Fry (no really, that's his name, Google says so but even I think it  sound made-up). And even though the patent expired in 1990, allowing other companies to make a similar product, the majority of of the world's Post-It notes are still made in Cynthiana, Kentucky. Amazing. Kind of wish I'd bought stock in it.

Look for Recipe of the Month coming later this week !!

EQ6 = New design = frustration !

I have been wanting a particular thing to hang above my kitchen window. I have a very specifc idea what I want - a sign/wallhanging of some sort with roosters, Rise & Shine, that kind of thing. I have looked everywhere and can't find anything even remotely close to what I want. So, finally I decided I'd just make it. I can do that, for heaven's sake, I can sew !

So I thought I'd use my Electric Quilt 6 design software (yes, the one that was pretty spendy and has been used so little that I have to re-read the manual every time),  Got myself comfy at the computer with all these ideas in my head and started "designing".  Project name: Rooster wallhanging for kitchen.

Must have spent a good 3 hours that night designing it. Then, a couple hours another night revising, coloring blocks, rearranging etc etc. The third night of my design saga suddenly found me deciding I wanted to make a quilt to hang in the space above the stairs as you come down from the 2nd floor to the first. You know, that tall unused space that no one likes to paint.  Husband even agreed a quilt would look great there. In so many words, he said "Go for it honey, that would look great there".   Hmmm.....I guess he isn't thinking about how HE is going to have to hang it.

So, off to EQ6 I go!!  Brought up my kitchen design and started revising. I can revise it since there weren't any roosters on it yet anyway.   3 hours later, for the most part, I have my design.   Went to eat some dinner, something quick (actually a bowl of cereal).....yes, I could eat cereal pretty much anytime.  So I'm standing there eating cereal looking at that space above the stairs. (yes, I was walking around while eating).  Thoughts now racing thru my head as I stare at that space......run to kitchen, put cereal down, grab tape measure form drawer, run to stairs. Measure width. OH NO. Stairs width is 39".   grrrrrrrrr....

My design measures 54" x54". Too big. Back to EQ6. Another couple hours later, I have got it done (the design).  Looked in manual to see how to re-name the project. Then the dog comes in and needs to go out and then a few more distractions and finally, I go back to my computer.

Now I don't like it. Grrrrrrr......I have most likely spent close to 12 hours  working on a design that in a blink of an eye, I decided I'm not going to use. Plus I basically designed over my rooster project.....So, back to square one on both.   Grrrrrrr...................I think I'll go do some laundry........