Sunday....Hot and Muggy

We've been babysitting since Wed. morning for our daughter's dog while they were on vacation. Did you know that babysitting dogs is much easier than little kids??

The grand-dog.

 And here are 600 HSTs all sewed together into rows and pressed, ready to be put into blocks.

And here they are sewed into the blocks. Fifteen finished and fifteen to go.

I don't know about anybody else, but I'm ready for Fall. This heat and humidity is getting old. Sunny Fall days with bright blue skies and NO humidity...YEAH!!!

Later.  Oopsie...do you see what I see?  The row of HSTs along the right side is sewed on backward...gonna need a do-over there.

CPD23 Week 5

Thing 6:   I found it interesting to read about the various online networking opportunities though quite a few of the examples given seemed to be more British than American. I joined Facebook last fall and have found it to be a good way to keep up with the far flung members of my and my husband's families. I especially enjoy the pictures some post of their family activites.  LinkedIn was one that I had heard of before and it looks like it would be a good one to join if your aim is to make many contacts in your profession and might be useful for job hunting and relocating. Since I'm not looking to do either I won't join. Somehow I just keep thinking about something I saw once that said, "On the Internet you can be anything you want to be."  While online contacts may be a starting point, I really think good old fashioned face-to-face networking is still the best. 

I've been reading quite a bit about Google+ and the favorite thing about it for most people seems to be the circles so you can post certain things to certain groups and not to others. I think the way Facebook does it gets people into trouble because everything posted goes to everybody on the friends list, or friends of friends depending upon how your privacy settings are set up. Google+ might be something to keep an eye on.

Thing 7:  I had never heard of the majority of these face-to-face networking opportunities. I think ALA was the only familiar one...one I have never joined because I don't work in a library that would pay for going to meetings and events or pick up the tab for dues.  Most of my personal networking is kept pretty local...the county library association and the library system events. Living where I do there would just be too much travel involved to participate at the state or national level and I'm not eager to pay for these things out of my meager small town library salary. I do see where it could be useful for MLS professionals who want to become better known and move up the ladder. I know I'm staying here and just want to keep on top of things enough to do the best job I can for my library and it's patrons.

Pressing Matters......

Working on pressing 600 HSTs. Not as much fun as you would think.

Updated later:

All done!! With one pressed the wrong way, I see. Oh well, at least it doesn't involve ripping.

We wished for warmer temps.......

....and now they're here. My thermometer is sitting on 98* and I just saw on AccuWeather that the forecast high for today is 103*. Whoever invented AC wasn't paid nearly enough!!!

Been doing some slicing & dicing of fabric lately:

Doesn't look like much yet.

Yesterday we went to my BIL's wedding....why do people get married in July when it's almost a sure thing the weather will be at it's hottest and most humid? Weather wise it was a repeat of our niece's wedding last year, only her's was outdoors and this was in a church with comfortable AC in the sanctuary.  Then we moved to the church basement for the meal and it was freezing cold down there, after which we moved on to the auditorium downtown where it started off fairly cool but got hotter as the evening progressed. I heard the happy couple is going to Arizona for their honeymoon. Who in their right mind goes to Arizona in July?? Oh well, it's a dry heat! :-) :-)  

Car Show

DH's car won 1st in it's class and Best Interior at O'Neill's Summerfest Car Show last weekend.

CPD23 Week 4.....Reflective Practice

Reflective Practice....writing about it isn't the easiest thing in the world. I'm looking back at the "Things" we've learned about so far. Some have been new, others were refreshers of what we learned in Nebr. 2.0.  I continue to blog, and enjoy it for the most part. I'm considering moving our library website to the blog format.

Twitter held no value for me. Maybe if I worked at a bigger library with lots and lots of activities going on and had a patron base that were heavy Twitter users, it might be different.  I still can't see that I would use Pushnote.

"Branding"  is the new buzzword for libraries and fodder for workshop presenters. I still don't think I have a "BRAND."  I'm wife, mother, grandmother, friend, quilter, genealogy researcher, computer fixer and on and on. At this point in my life I'm not really interested in establishing a "brand." I'm thinking more about retirement. For someone just starting out in a career, maybe establishing some sort of professional "brand." is important, but then again maybe it's just the latest fad and in a couple of years we'll leave the branding to the cowboys and the big corporations who are trying to sell us something.

Upon further reflection, the thing I need to concentrate on is keeping up with this project week by week so I keep it all straight. :-)

CPD Week 2--Update

OK, so I was a little confused when I did my previous post for Week 2. I had it in my head that BRANDING was Week 3. Oh well, I think I've got it straight now.

Being a country girl what branding means to me is marking cattle so we can identify which ones belong to us if they wander off into a neighbor's pasture.  More and more I see lots of chatter about "branding" as a marketing ploy, both for business and libraries.

It seems to me that public libraries have a perfectly good brand...."FREE."  As in free information, free books, magazines, movies, etc., free computer/Internet access, along with a multitude of other things depending on the library.

As for me, what should I "brand." The Wife/Mom/Grandma me?  The librarian me? The quilter me? The genealogy researcher me? The computer fixer me?  Do I even need or want a "brand"?  When I did my blog I knew I only wanted to maintain one blog so I rolled it all up into one ball of wax......all the parts of me.

This 'n That

It's getting late so I'll just post a few pictures and try to keep the commentary to a minimum. Grandson pics first:

With the bass he caught all by himself at Willow Lake last weekend. He was so proud.

Don't know what got into him here. It was plenty warm when he stayed with us.

Just quilted. Pieced by my 90 yr. old friend who has lost most of her vision to macular degeneration.  It will be a raffle quilt for the American Legion Auxiliary.

Gotta have a kitty picture once in a while. Isn't he sweet all curled up on the sofa pillow for a nap?

That's it.  Nighty-night, all.

Week 3....CPD23

This was originally posted as Week 2....sorry, I was a tad confused. Just goes to show that one should not do these things too late in the day.

Anyhow......I read through the material and found I'd already done some of it during the first Nebraska Learns 2.0.  I had signed up for a Twitter account and tweeted for a while but it didn't hold my interest or serve any purpose for me that I could see so I quit and can't remember my login or password anymore. I didn't get a new account because I just don't see it being any more relevant to me now......not all my life is spent on the computer.

I had also set up a Google Reader account during the previous session and still make use of it. I have quite a few blogs on it and keep up with reading  them.  I read some of the "favorite" blogs listed in the material and intend to get back to them though I haven't subscribed in Google Reader as yet.

Pushnote........what can I say?  I read the FAQs to find out what it's about but didn't sign up for an account or download the browser add-on.

So, what have I learned from this?  Well, I'm beginning to think I'm not really inclined to a lot of online sociability.   Strange for someone who spends a lot of time on the computer.  Just my hermit qualities I guess.

Reminded & 23 Things: Week 1

It's a good thing I was looking back through the blog. It reminded me that I made all those RWB string blocks.  Really must get them packaged up and sent off.

I'm going to be starting another series of Nebraska 2.0 online classes called 23 Things For Professional Development that will last for five months. Technology changes so fast that it's important to participate in opportunities like this to keep up. I'm hoping to learn at least a couple things I can put to work in my own life. After reading and learning about each thing we are required to write a blog post and then post the URL to the Library Commission's Nebraska 2.0 blog.  Since I already established this blog the last time around I will be using it.  Anyone who reads this for the quilting and general chit-chat can skip those posts......or you can read about what I'm learning and learn along with me.  Actually, I think I can count this as the post for Things 1 and 2.

For the blog browsing requirement for Thing 2 I found an overwhelming number of blogs from all over the world on the 23 Things site. I'm wondering if the Nebraska librarians will have a separate Nebraska list so we can read blogs of fellow participants from right here in our state.  I intend to read more of the ones on the "mother site" but won't always have time for many of those, interesting as they may be.

I did do a little bit of sewing this week on one of the steps to Roll Roll Cotton Boll. Mostly I've just been doing the cutting of the various strips used. That's the nice thing about doing the mystery long after it isn't a mystery any more....all the strips of each color can be cut at the same time even if they get used in another step.  Some of my pieces of fabric aren't all that big so while I cut for this quilt I'm also cutting other sizes of strips for the strip drawers.  Makes less fabric to go back into the yardage cabinets. I'm beginning to see a difference.

Sorry, no pictures this time. Everyone's seen strips of fabric before.

New Internet Provider

Today I got my TeleBeep Wireless Internet installed. Now I have a lovely satellite dish installed on the NE corner of my house to balance the Dish satellite on the SW corner.

The changeover was quick and painless, but I did learn that "wireless" means wireless for them but not for the customer. There is a wire that runs into the house to my wireless router. Speed tests before & after show the speed is almost three times faster than the DSL I had.  And $15-$20 a month cheaper. Yippee.  Monday I will give Frontier the bad news.

Gifted.....

.......the two buckets of strawberries from the previous post. That's one way to get out of cleaning them. Now I'm making a strawberry dessert out of those in the the small container. Yum.  Guess what?  DH is out picking more......really hope he doesn't find too many.

What I've Been Doing

How's that for a boring blog title?  It's another gray day that doesn't really inspire any creativity.  Not too hot but humid. The humidity lately has made the basement kind of damp and clammy so the air conditioner is running and so is the furnace fan, trying to get the air down there circulating and drying out. The biggest problem is the noise from the window AC. That steady loud drone about puts me to sleep. zzzzzzzzzzzz

After a Town Board meeting last night and a County Supervisor's meeting this morning, I've secured the funding for the library for another year  so I feel like I can goof off a little. At least after I get these cleaned and in the freezer....maybe make a strawberry dessert too :) :)

I like strawberries as much as the next person, but I'm really glad these are June bearers so I have to do this for a week or two and then I'm done. Ever bearing ones just go on and on and on.

Even though I still have quilt tops waiting to be quilted I just had to start playing with a new project so I've been sorting out strips and cutting more.

Can you look at this assortment and guess what it will be?  There was another part of this project completed and posted previously.  I may even have said what it was in that post......who remembers stuff like that??? :) :)

Missouri River flooding

Here are a couple videos I borrowed off Facebook and YouTube showing water being released at Gavins Point dam (video by Dave Rodekohr) and  flooding from around Niobrara and upstream (video by Wilcox Flying Service).                             

                   

     

The Mighty Mo is showing it still has the power for massive devastation, even with all the dams along its length. When there is this much water it has to go somewhere and there is no stopping it. We've kind of forgotten that over the past 60 years.

Magic number

The magic number in this case is 60. As in 60 light string blocks finished for Bonnie Hunter's Roll Roll Cotton Boll. (Well, finished except for taking the paper off the backs.)

There are lots of parts to this quilt so I'll probably be showing periodic progress as it happens.

Last night we had our club family picnic out at Eileen's house. Such a nice evening of good food and good conversation with friends.  Just a nice evening overall...the weather cooperated with warm, not hot, weather, no crazy wind, birds singing, pheasants crowing.....very pleasant. We even had a little calf come try to join the party. It's what we used to call a "bucket calf" and I think when he heard Eileen's voice he came looking for her.

Fun for the day

My fun for the day is getting this little baby computer up and running again.

Had to put in a new SSD (solid state drive), re-install Windows. That was interesting since these little things don't have CD-ROM drives, but where there's a will there's a way and you can find ANYTHING on the Internet.....downloaded & installed drivers for the various components. Installing Service Pack 2 right now, to be followed by Service Pack 3. Then I guess I'll have let it download and install all the updates since SP3 came out. Already have an anti-virus program on it and will need to put on some sort of Office program, maybe OpenOffice since it's free.

Yesterday I got a little sewing done.........20 of the neutral string blocks for Roll Roll Cotton Boll. It goes pretty fast even though I'm using up a bunch of narrower strips. Hoping to do another set tomorrow.

The grass is pulled out of the flower bed and maybe tomorrow I can get my petunias set out. If it doesn't rain tonight it should be dry enough tomorrow to set out the tomatoes & peppers too. The poor things will probably get beat senseless by the wind, it hits so bad here, but they have to go into the garden sometime.  And, I think it's time to drag out the grill and the Adirondack chairs since it seems like winter has FINALLY given up its grip.  It's so perfect out tonight that I should probably have been doing this stuff instead of messing with the baby computer. :)

Finished product

Got the binding on this one yesterday.

Bricks and Stepping Stones

This is a Bonnie Hunter design, quilted with the "Feather Me" pantograph by Meridith England. The bricks are made of hand dyed material I made several years ago and the piecing was a Quilt Club project I worked on at meetings when we didn't have a special project to work on. The pink for the borders & binding was from my stash and when I finished cutting the binding there was about 1/8th of an inch left. Cutting it a little close, I'd say. Now, on the to next one.

29 and holding

 

My birthday cupcakes. We don't ordinarily have food at our Book Club get togethers but since it falls on my b-day I thought I'd take treats. Just like kindergarten. hehehe

Have you ever made the cake recipe on the back of the Hershey's cocoa can? It's good, but if you try it don't believe the part about filling cupcake cups 2/3 full. Half way is plenty. Mine kind of ran over and I had to chisel them out of the pan.

The quilt on the frame in the last post is quilted and the three computers are working again. The last one goes home to its mommy tonight.  Please, please, please don't ever venture out onto the Internet without anti-virus software installed on your computer. Some really nasty stuff gets on your computer.  I really need to have less sympathy and charge more for cleaning them up. :)

No plans this week...................NOT!

This was the week with NOTHING on the calendar except going to work on Monday and Thursday. This is the week I was going to sew, sew, sew on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Yeah, right!!! By suppertime on Monday I had three computers setting in my living room that needed to be cleaned up and made to work again.

 

The first one ONLY took me two days to clean out. Do not, and I repeat, DO NOT download something called WhiteSmoke to your computer. It claims to be a legitimate program but it's full of malware and a real bitch to remove. On this particular machine it had imbedded itself in about 900 files, established numerous files and registry entries.

However, while I waited on several cleaning tools to do their thing on the computer  I got a quilt loaded on the machine and about 2/3 quilted.

 

This one has been in the works for a little better than two years and I'm really liking it.

The weather is still gray, rainy, chilly and windy and supposed to continue that way so I won't mind staying inside cleaning out computers and quilting.

At home sew-in

I didn't make it to the Heartstrings sew-in in Fremont so I had my own personal at-home sew-in. Of course, I didn't get to enjoy the company of other Heartstrings members but I didn't have to get up at 5am, or spend about six hours on the road round trip, or burn a tank of almost $4 a gallon gas. By the time I quit working I had 41 RWB blocks finished.

Maybe I'll make a few more in the morning, for a full set of 48.

Do you know what's odd?  My box of RWB strips doesn't look any emptier!! They seem to fluff up to fill the space. LOL

There's small....and then there's SMALL

I've been thinking about making Bonnie Hunter's Roll Roll Cotton Boll quilt so Wednesday afternoon found me digging around in my string drawers, picking out neutral/pale strings for the string blocks in RRCB. After three meetings in three days, two where I was hosting, it was amazingly soothing.  I just grabbed anything I thought would work & tossed it in a pile. I did have to wonder though about some of the really short, narrow pieces I found. Finally I remembered that several years ago I had it in my head to make 8-point star blocks, probably about 18" or so, and all the diamonds in each star were going to be string pieced. For that project short and narrow was good. Some were really small.  Today I went through the basketful,

sorting strings. Long ones on the left, shorties on the right. I hate grabbing strings while I'm sewing and finding two or three that are too short before I find the right length. A few of the shorties I even sewed together to make a more useful length.  Crazy??  Maybe. So now I have the basket full of longer strings, a small box of shorties, and a small tin full of wide shorties and triangles for the corners.

The string drawers aren't crammed quite as  full now, but I think I'll have to make "Fair & Square" from Bonnie's book Scraps & Shirttails II: Continuing the Art of Quilting Green  to use up a bunch of the colored ones. Gosh, I might even have to make some of those star blocks if that doesn't do the job.

Happy Easter

Guess what??  I get to get up in the morning and make another cake for the strawberry shortcake I'm taking along to my daughter's for Easter dinner.  Made my pound cake recipe that has never failed me before and it was a total flop.  It fell, was greasy and very dark and didn't taste at all like pound cake.  Guess I should have used the tube pan like always instead of putting it in two loaf pans. It got tossed even though I felt guilty about it considering all the butter, sugar & eggs that went into it. I'll just make a nice yellow cake from scratch...it'll probably still be warm when we get there.

Tuesday....Mother Nature's Tricks.....Orange Crush

This is what I woke up to this morning:

Al Gore notwithstanding, global warming doesn't seem to have reached the Cornhusker state yet.

So, I decided to brighten a dreary, gloomy day by getting my Orange Crush top laid out:

And yes, I did notice that the star block in the middle of the second row has a piece turned wrong.  This is why I take pictures of my layouts.....it's easier to see errors in a photo. It will be corrected before I start sewing rows together.

One.....Two.....Three

#1

 

#2

#3

That's three UFOs out of the pile. The first one will be going to Alycia for QOV. The other two will be going to Quilter's Newsletter for the Quilts for Japan appeal. The second one was started over a year ago at the Fremont Heartstrings sew-in and just recently got finished.  The third was pieced about three years ago from leftover strips from a Scrappy Bargello quilt (I think there might still be some lurking somewhere.) that was made 10 or more years ago.  Sometimes things just have to mellow for a while.....at least that's my story.

Dreary day

When I woke up to fog this morning I was so hoping it would lift and we would see sunshine. That was not to be. Checked the forecast in the paper and it looks like the chances of rain get better as the week wears on.  Spring in Nebraska sucks. It's almost a sure thing we'll go from cold and wet to hot and steamy. If we get real lucky there might be a few nice days in there somewhere.

Tuesday night was Quilt Club, held at the library.  Our hostess had been under the weather so we didn't have a special project to work on. I took my machine with me so put together a top from string blocks.  It was my lucky night since I won the door prize.

A very pretty bracelet made by Jennie.  The purple key fob was a gift from Flischa.

 

 

 I scrambled to get a challenge done. Here's what we started out with..........

A pre-print for a sweatshirt jacket.

 And not feeling very creative, this is what I did with mine............

String blocks!!!

As it turned out, no one else brought theirs so I'll take it again next month.

Looks like Spring is here

It's been a beautiful day today.....clear skies, sunshine and a little wind but not 90mph like usual. Today was the first time I hung laundry out in months.

 

So, what have I been doing, besides laundry, on such a nice day?  Why, I've been in the basement quilting. Crazy, huh??  Have club tonight so I suppose I should be thinking about what's for supper. It's grilling weather, but the grill is stashed away in the garage and I don't feel like dragging it out.

OK, enough of a break. Back to quilting, but first a kitty picture:

In her nest of quilts.  She looked friendlier in the other picture I took but it was out of focus.

And a grand-daughter picture showing her all ready for the Prom Sweetheart Dance. She's only a sophmore but got asked to Prom by a Junior. She did get to go to Prom too, but with a different date.

And one of the younger grand-daughter too.

 

She's #8....the one in mid-air. She always gives it all she's got.

 No pictures of grandson to share right now, but we celebrate his 8th birthday this coming Sunday even thought it's not officially till the 14th.  They're growing up so fast.

Goals met

Last night before I went to sleep I had a list in mind of things to get done today:

       1. Make Crock Pot Ham & 16 Bean soup for supper
       2. Make binding for the QOV quilt I quilted yesterday
       3. Make backing for the next quilt on the quilting list

I'm happy to say I got all that done plus cutting batting to size and making the binding for that next quilt. I'm thinking maybe I can at least get it loaded on the machine on Friday.

The soup turned out pretty good...DH had two helpings.  One thing though....the beans were cooked within 4-5 hrs on high, not the 6-8 like the recipe says.  So it was ready much sooner than I thought it would be. We ate early tonight.

.....Mmmmmmmmmmmm.......

......Should a librarian be in possession of an eBook reader? It might seem like going against the grain, but I was curious, did some a lot of research and am now the owner of a Sony PRS 650 touchscreen eReader.

It's compact, easy to operate and fairly lightweight. So much easier on hands than holding a large hard-cover book. Text can be adjusted to six different sizes....good for aging eyes. The screen is what's called e-ink rather than back lit like a computer screen. I've read two or three hours at a time and my eyes don't get tired like they do reading for extended periods of time on the computer. Over all I like it, but if there was one thing I could change it would be to have the screen background more of a cream color instead of the very pale gray it is.  This model doesn't have either Wifi or 3G connections so books need to be downloaded to the computer first then put on the reader.  I use a free program called Calibre to manage my books and load them to the reader. The program can also convert from one eBook format to another as long as there's no Digital Rights Management (DRM) on the eBook. For instance, from Kindle's MOBI format to the more standard EPUB format, or vice versa, but only if there's no DRM involved.  Just so you know, I still like real books too. Something about the feel and smell of the paper and ink along with the ability to see your progress as you read. I'll never abandon them entirely.

My new gadget is laying on the 10-Minute table runner that only took an hour to make at our Quilt Club meeting last week. My Halloween one turned out real cute and it would be fun to make some for all the holidays and seasons.  A set of them would make nice gifts too.

Isn't it interesting?

The library got it's new copy of Consumer Reports today.....the 2011 new car edition. In looking through it I realized that the car industry seems to be going backward when it comes to gas mileage.  The majority of the vehicles featured, and there were lots of them, don't get as good gas mileage as my 20-yr. old Buick. That includes the teeny-weeny sub-compact models. There were just a handful that are rated at 30mpg or better. This is progress?? Who are they trying to kid?? We won't even go into prices of the new "efficient" cars.

So Close.....

The two-year-old UFO if sooooo close to being a finished top. Just need to miter the corners. Maybe it'll get done yet tonight.

For tonight's entertainment, here's a video of my kitty after I fed him some cheese. I guess it must have stuck to his teeth or something. When he kept licking and licking I just had to grab the camera and video him.

Lick, lick, lick, lick.

Lime Green

I've got two sets of bright w/lime green center blocks done for the Feb./Mar. Heartstrings quilt group project. I get carried away cutting strips and the sewing is addictive. Anyway, those are done now & just need to be mailed off.

Love that lime green!!

Some quilting done

Hard to believe it's been over two weeks since my last post. There just hasn't been much going on to write about except to complain about the cold...why bother???  I have gotten a couple tops quilted....too bad they're not mine.

Progress is being made on a 2 yr. old UFO. The borders are ready to sew on. I hate putting on borders and it will have three of them so I've sewed the strips together and will miter the corners. I decided that should be less of a PITA than sewing each strip on individually. We shall see.  My grandson actually asked about this quilt when he stayed the weekend. I had been working on blocks when I stayed with the kids at their house.

I have really been enjoying the much warmer weather. Yesterday I made a trip to Norfolk to do some returns, spend a gift card & run a few other errands. I noticed how many Senior Citizens were out and about.....scads of 'em, oxygen bottles, walkers and all.  With the ice mostly thawed they probably felt safe going out for the first time in weeks. Today I'm off to O'Neill to try to spend a couple gift cards at the quilt shop & run another DH errand. Friends report that the quilt shop is looking kind of empty so we'll see what I find. I always worry they'll close their doors before I get my gift cards spent.

Helper

Found this on another blog and decided to share it.


see more Lolcats and funny pictures

 If only I could train my kitties to be so productive.

Ahhhh, Spring!!

Not really. After all, this is Nebraska in January, but the sky is blue, the sun is shining and my thermometer says it's 42 degrees out today and it was almost as warm yesterday. It gives one hope that Spring is getting closer.

Still nothing quilty to show, but soon. They aren't mine but I had a part in them. Stay tuned.

Had an email this morning from a second cousin in Germany sending me some old family pictures & telling me a little bit more about her family. So exciting.  Makes me want to get working on genealogy again. It's always hard to decide....genealogy?? read?? sew/quilt?? play on the computer?? Notice, nothing active mentioned here. That's why I don't like pictures of me....to chubby from all the sit-down hobbies.

We had a program/book signing at the library last night by local author Dick Haskin for his latest book, "Beyond the Hills of Mars."  Ten people were there for the program and another couple showed up just as it was ending. A pretty good turnout for our little library. I'm hoping to get a couple more area authors to do programs in the next couple of months.

Grandson, Tyler, will be coming later today to spend the weekend. Will have to move my junk from his bed and lay in some of his favorite foods. I have to work at the library tomorrow but he will have a good time hanging out with Grandpa. Maybe it will be warm enough to go ice fishing.

So long till next time.

Cold again

glitter-graphics.com
 

We're back to freezing cold today. I was so hoping for another nice day like yesterday.....upper 30's, even saw the sun a little bit, but no go. Freakin' cold again, with some light snow......and I hope it stays light. Yesterday melted a bunch of what we had and we don't need any more.

Got the sewer system problems straightened out yesterday. A person just doesn't appreciate being able to run any amount of water down the drains until you can't. After the freezer's demise that was the second stumbling block we've had lately. They say things come in 3s so I'm scared to even think of what #3 might be.

Today I'm hoping to get myself down into the basement, get the machine oiled up and load a quilt. It's high time there was something quilty on this blog.

Keep warm, everyone.

The Bad, The Good and The Ugly

The Bad.........As a result of low voltage for about three hours very early last Friday morning, our basement freezer died.

The Good.......I had a snow day on Monday & went to the basement that morning to dig a chicken out of the freezer to make chicken noodle soup. Discovered said dead freezer & spent quite a bit of time transferring things to the other freezers & trying to cram it all in as best I could.

The Ugly.........The dearly departed laying like a beached whale in front of my house. (Yes, temporarily. How temporarily is anybody's guess.)

 After the struggle to get it up out of the basement I don't think DH or his bro want to even think about trying to move this thing again. Old appliances were built to last and they are HEAVY.

My new freezer............

Just joking!!  Stuff from the dead freezer wouldn't all fit in the other freezers so I had to dump out some plastic storage tubs to put the rest in & leave it outside. The cold, cold weather is good for something at least. The new freezer is in place in the basement & today I will start packing things back in. Since it's smaller than the old one I doubt if it will all fit so one or two of these "deluxe environmentally safe" freezers may stay in use for a bit.

My Snowy World

Not much going on today. Just watching the snow, putting away some Christmas decorations and playing on the computer. Do you suppose the lack of motivation is from the desire to hibernate to get away from the cold??

I can hardly contain my excitement.....

......I finally got a new ironing board cover!!!  Yeah, pretty silly, but the old one was so ugly and totally disintegrating. This one is at least relatively pretty, though it will soon look as bad as the old one. And here it is in all it's glory, while there is still some glory to show:

 

Doesn't take much to excite me does it!!! Still, every quilter should start the new year out with a new ironing board cover. It's just uplifting. :-)

And here's a family picture we took when we had our family Thanksgiving:

Back: Allen, Katie, Laurie, Scott    Front: Ashley, Warren, Tyler, me, Hailey

 I'm never very fond of pictures with me in them, but this one isn't too bad and everyone else looks pretty good. At least by having a grand-child on each side it hides me a little bit. :-)