Sledding - Who me?

This morning Claire and Cubby came over to help me shovel and brave the winter snow. Yesterday, I waded through knee-deep snow to make sure that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle plastic sleds were still out in the shed. First we sledded down the hill in my front yard and then all (including Gennie) piled into the car to go to the BIG hill at Post Oak. We had a really great time.  I almost got Gennie to sit on my lap on the sled but I was worried that she would try to bail out half way down and we'd end up in a tumbled mess.  More pictures on Claire's Facebook page.

Yes, gamma gamma, I AM the king of the mountain. Hi Ya!

Mea Culpa

OK. I admit it. I hope I don't find a burning "Q" in my front yard. To all of you on fabric fasts and all of you ex - Country Stitches employees, I have strayed and signed up for the $6.00 quilt. There were 75 people at the first meeting - can you believe it? You get the first block for 6 bucks and as long as you bring the completed block in the next month, the next block kit is free. The idea is that you will also find something you can't live without when you come in to pick up your kit. So far I have spent an extra $3. I'm trying to hold my own on the impulse buying...

 
Here is the February block #2. Of course it uses dark colors. What else would you expect? There was also a second, pastel floral choice but that didn't appeal to me at all.

Have you ever tried to get a poinsettia to "rebloom"? It takes so many hours of daylight, so many hours of darkness. So much heat, so much cold, etc.  This little trooper is from Christmas 2008. He spent all summer on my sun porch and I brought him in a little too late, I thought. Apparently, whatever it is that I screwed up was just what he needed and I have been rewarded with a little tiny "bloom". (The flower of the poinsettia is actually its yellow center. The red “petals” surrounding those flowers are modified leaves, called bracts.) Smile for today.

February in Michigan

Last night we got dumped on again. But look on the bright side, it's only half of what they got on the East Coast. I came home from class Tuesday night about 7:30 and tried twice to make it up my driveway. No go. So I had to shovel before I could put my car away.  This morning the driveway didn't even look like I had shoveled at all.

But look at it now!  It took about an hour this morning to get it cleared. The sun is out and it actually felt warm. I have a hard time agreeing that it's pretty since I'm not a fan of winter but it's "OK".

While I was out, the neighbor's garage door opened and I heard, "Oh yeah, this is what I'm talkin' about!". The two little kids next door (4 & 6?) were home from school and much happier about the snow than I.

Is that a polar bear in a snowstorm? No, just Gennie.

Her opinions of snow run right along with mine.

DRAT!!! While I have been writing this post, the snowplow has filled the bottom of my driveway with backwash. Here we go again!

Milestone Birthday

My Aunt Eva in Pennsylvania is celebrating her 75th birthday this week. She has always been one of my favorite relatives and is now my only remaining Aunt. (Unfortunately, that happens as you get older - did I just have another birthday recently? - oh well.) I wanted to send a little surprise in her birthday card so I made this little heart (4"x 4") to let her know how much I love her. The center heart is beaded cross stitch on perforated paper and the rest is wool felt with more beads. I hope she has a wonderful celebration!

Last night I finally finished Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade. (Linda, see you at Foster on Wednesday.) It's basically a murder mystery with other stuff - war, politics, a little hot gay romance, thrown in. Not as good as the Outlander Series but Lord John is one of the story lines in the latest Outlander - An Echo in the Bone - so I wanted to catch up on his character before I started reading Echo.

One of the Coffee Jam quilters loaned me a Sharyn McCrumb novel - The Songcatcher. A long time ago, I read She Walks These Hills also by McCrumb and just loved it.  I can't decide if I'll take a break from the 18th century and read that or go on to Lord John and the Hand of Devils.

And They're Off!

At 9:20 this morning the intrepid travelers took off from E Lansing. It was zero degrees here; let's hope the weather is kind to them the rest of the way. Packing, except for delicate things like Irene's guitar and laptop were packed on Friday. After the talk of taking the crockpot and sewing machine, etc., I really expected the van to look like Murphy's closet. I expected it would be hard to close the doors but it really wasn't that bad. Congratulations ladies on your restraint.

 

It was a bit of a challenge getting both bikes on the bike rack but I'm sure they'll be old pros in no time. You may notice that Herman the road possum is taking his own companion, Marijo the Sock Monkey. Pretty progressive of Jan to allow him to bring a 'friend' of the opposite gender.

 
Off they go.... We'll have to start watching for posts from the road. I'm proud of you Jan for following your dream. And what a wonderful friend you are Irene for helping Jan's dream become a reality.

It's all in the family

It's been really wet in California. Here are a couple of pictures from my sister in Los Angeles. There is a cement trench that "directs" the L.A. River where to run around the city. We have walked my sister's dogs along the walking path when the river was just a trickle and you can see the bottom of the river, ducks paddling, turtles, etc.  Not this week!

These pictures were taken at the beginning of the week. There is another round of storms expected today.

Here are Chris' latest quilt creations. When it just keeps raining, you have to stay home and keep dry. (In between mopping up muddy dog prints) Good time to quilt.

Here's what she has to say:

Main fabrics came from "Quilted Angel" in Petaluma, CA. My husband Raul and son Isaac were on a post-Christmas road trip. Got a call from Isaac who said, "Dad's on his hands and knees looking at fat quarters, he wants to talk to you." Afterwards walking through the store Raul heard murmurs of, "What a nice man.....My husband would never buy fabric..."

 

Quilternity and Music eternity

Hooray! My birthday fabric has finally arrived. Last year between Christmas and New Year's, I ordered fabric from From Here to Quilternity. I hadn't thought about it again until Cyndee sent me a link to their 35% off sale. I couldn't resist. I think some of these fabrics will find their way into Bonnie's quilt along.

I am so easily influenced. Ruth has been so happy about her new piano, (can't wait to see it next week at Block Exchange) that I got out some of my old piano music and have actually played a few times in the last couple of weeks. This old standby was one of my recital pieces when I was a kid. The notes written in pencil marks are from the time Ian thought he would learn the piano but was soon on to other things. What really got to me though was the copyright date: 1964. It seems like an eternity ago but since I started taking piano lessons when I was nine years old, this was probably a new piece of music then! Ouch!