NOVEMBER!!

In my world (college advising), October is commonly referred to as Suck-tober.  Crass, I know, but whoa, what a crazy, exhausting month!  Today is the deadline for seniors to apply Early Action or Early Decision to most colleges, so tomorrow, things start to slow down to a trot instead of this full-on gallop we've been experiencing all month.  YAY!

To me, that means picking up the guitar again, reading for pleasure (I have a backlog of new-to-me cozy mysteries waiting for me) and SEWING!!  Tonight, in between panicked emails from the kids who didn't listen to me about getting things done early and are just now finalizing essays before submitting applications tonight, I am whipping up a couple of mini Christmas stockings.  They usually sell well in my ETSY shop, and those that don't sell, I use to give gifts to friends and family.  They are the perfect size to hold a gift card, but I've also filled them with candy, lottery tickets, money, any little thing.

When I got online tonight, I found that Bonnie Hunter has announced this year's mystery quilt!  ACK!  I guess I should get back to finishing LAST year's quilt; I had fun working on it last year, and want to do it again this year.  I have 18 more blocks to put together before I can start assembling the quilt.

Yearning to quilt!

Do you ever want to quilt so badly that the longing for it is almost a physical sensation?  That's what I'm experiencing right now.  I attended a conference in Anaheim, California this past Wednesday through Sunday, so boom - five non-quilting days right there.  Instead, I took some yarn and started a new pair of socks.

Then, ever since I got back, I have been working non-stop (at a boarding school, it can seem that way anyway - I was working/on duty from 8:30 AM until 11:00 PM today with just 1.5 hours off, during which I had to go to the grocery store and pick up my son from basketball practice).  Where is the time for sewing???

With Clue #2 released last Friday, I've been itching to work on my On Ringo Lake mystery quilt.  I've managed just ten of the required 200 flying geese blocks so far, but I'm hopeful that I'll have some time later this week to catch up before the third clue is released.

In the meantime, I wonder what we'll do with these flying geese...with four times as many flying geese as nine-patches, maybe they will go around the nine-patches to make stars...only time will tell!

I'm linking up with Monday Making and Oh Scrap!

My colleagues, my friends - Part Two

Do you ever make assumptions about people based on their appearance?  C'mon now, be honest.  As much as I hate to admit it, I do.  Luckily, however, I am always open to changing my opinions based on actual knowledge, rather than impressions.

Ten years ago, my first impression of Jonathan, the second-in-command here in the Admissions Office, was of a stuffed shirt.  Here I was, motorcycle-driving, mixed-race, archaeology-major, child of activists who grew up in a log cabin in Maine, and on day one at W&L, I met Jonathan, probably wearing a pastel-colored oxford shirt with a bow tie and scholarly glasses, clean cut all-American-looking Tennessee native with formal mannerisms, and I was thinking, "sheesh, we are going to have NOTHING in common."

Shame on me.  Behind the proper speech of this English major who uses words like verklempt in daily conversation and expects people to understand his meaning (verklempt = Yiddish word that means overcome with emotion - yeah, I had to look it up!), is a really nice guy with a killer dry wit and an ability to laugh with me when I am laughing at him (true confession time - laughing at him is one of my favorite pastimes).  Upon getting to know him better, we have much more in common than I originally thought.

And then, there is something to be said for working with someone for a decade.  There is regular turnover in the professional staff of any admissions office.  That is normal.  Most of the people I work with are here for 2-3 years and then move on.  The camaraderie and shared experiences take on new meaning when you are the two left behind as others cycle through. What a blessing he has been to be a sounding board when I wanted to talk with someone who "understood" where I was coming from - we are contemporaries, but let me state for the record that he is a good 4 or 5 months OLDER than I am.  I remind him of that every chance I get.  But that means he understands better than some of my younger colleagues the challenges of parenting, of finding balance between your home life and your work life, of home ownership, of aging parents, of so many shared life experiences, and I have really appreciated his open door and his listening ear.

Something else that Jonathan does well is provide feedback for a job well done.  Sometimes that goes unnoticed or unsaid in the workplace, but Jonathan has consistently boosted my self-esteem by letting me know when a program I have planned or a project I have completed was successful.  I am forever thankful for that.

When I opened my gift box from my colleagues, Jonathan's block was on top, the first one I saw.  It took my breath away.  I was immediately reminded of the fibers and weavings and whatnot from my yearly trips to Latin America - both the colors and the patterns.  Those trips were my favorite every year, so I'm touched that he choose to bring that into his block for me, and I'll be honest, folks - I never figured Jonathan for being all that creative.  He has many strengths and talents, but I never guessed that this would be one.  Isn't it gorgeous?

Thank you, Jonathan!

My colleagues, my friends - Part One

This weekend, I am ending my 10-year career in undergraduate admissions at Washington and Lee University.  I've been packing up my office, creating checklists for my successor, and saying goodbye to friends and colleagues across the University.  There's nothing like saying goodbye to make you realize how much someone means to you.

This morning, my fellow Admissions staff gathered around me to give me a gift.  Now, I've received many gifts in my life, but not many, if any, as meaningful as this.  This gift is so special, so perfect, that I'm not going to try to squeeze it all into one post.  Thus, this is Part One of a series of posts that will follow, highlighting my gift and the wonderful people who gave it to me.

(If you are a new reader to my blog, important context for this gift is that I am leaving this job to pursue a creative dream of mine - I'm opening a creative space for fiber artists here in town.)

It was tough to decide where to start, but I decided to start with Scotty, our receptionist.  I'm fairly certain that this gift was her idea, and it was a brilliant one.  I'm not surprised, though.  Scotty is an incredibly compassionate and insightful person, someone who listens to you with her whole being so that you KNOW that she is not just listening, but actually hearing what you are saying.  Her attention makes you feel like the most important and interesting person in the room.  It is what makes her a phenomenal receptionist, being the first smiling, welcoming face that prospective students see when they arrive at our office, and it is what makes her such a treasured friend.  She recommends books that are perfect for me.  She brings in delicious baked goods from her healthy kitchen.  She pays attention to what is happening in the lives of all of us here in the office, and makes little accommodations, unasked but so appreciated, to make our schedules better fit our frame of mind for that day.  She is one of those people that always seems to put others first.  She has been so wonderful to work with.

So apparently, she coordinated for everyone to receive a square of canvas, blank canvas, and they were each to create a block for me.  Can you think of a better gift for a quilter?  Personal - the personality of each person really comes out in their block; practical - I'm opening a fiber arts shop, so this gift will fit right into my scheme, especially since one of the things I want to offer is opportunities for people to come together to make occasion quilts for friends and family; and above all, creative - it is what I value most about quilting, the ability to express myself creatively.

Scotty made two blocks:

Yo-yos and beads, precisely aligned, and bursting with color.  Orange is my favorite color, what I consider my power color, the color I put on when I'm worried about having the strength to make it through the day.  I love that she used orange as well as the colors that make up orange - the combination makes me feel so happy and energized.  And the precision - folks, that's just Scotty.  She organizes our schedules down to the last detail and is always on top of what is going on.  This block is such a wonderful depiction of her personality.

How fun is this second block??  I love ric rac, and buy it up every chance I get.  And the jingle bells - what a wonderful detail.  She probably didn't know this, but I plan to have a strap of sleigh bells on the front door of my shop to alert me to when people arrive.  But what I love most about this block is how different it is from the first.  Where the first is orderly and precise, this one is so free and exuberant.  The two blocks together tell such a neat story of a woman that I am so honored to call friend.  Thank you, Scotty!

Stay tuned for more about my wonderful colleagues and their beautiful blocks in the coming days.

Last days

I have 5 days left working my current job, including today.  There are a lot of "lasts" taking place.  Last weekend was my last work trip - I presented at a conference at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.  It was bittersweet - even though I miss my family when I am gone, I enjoy traveling for work.  I tried to really relish this trip - after lunch the first day, I took a 3-mile walk around the neighborhood.  I was very excited when I saw a shop sign that read "Forget Me Knot".  Doesn't that make you think of thread of yarn or something fiber related?  I rushed over.

OK, a consignment shop of women's clothing, not what I was hoping for, but not a complete loss, either.  They actually had some really neat stuff in there, and I left with a dress and a pair of shoes, but I left behind several things that the me who hadn't just quit her job and decided to start her own business would have snapped up in a heartbeat.  Gotta be more frugal now that my income isn't going to be as stable.  But if you are ever visiting Chicago and like consignment shops, this one was tops, as far as I'm concerned!

On the plane, I got nearly all the hand quilting done in the rainbow chevron baby quilt.  I bet I have less than an hour of quilting left.  I should get it done so I can get it to the baby before she gets too big!  But instead of quilting, I've been painting.  They put a new bathroom floor down in my new shop, and so they pulled out the toilet and sink.  That was the perfect time to paint, right?  So even though I had to do it after work and after karate, I spent the last two evenings first priming and then painting.  Can you say "sore"?  But no more painting until my lease starts on August 1.  At that time, I plan to have lots of help to get the store prettied up in no time.

Here's what I was covering up - I've never painted over wallpaper before, but the landlady encouraged me to try it, rather than take the wallpaper off.  That's why I really had to prime first.  No after photo yet, but I painted the room Sherwood Green, one of the colors that will be on the exterior.

I also stitched up a storm so I could present Adam with his quilt top, made from his mother's shirts, on Father's Day.  It was 11:30 PM when I finished, but it was still Sunday and he was still awake, so that counts, right?  When he realized what the material was, he brought it up to his face to inhale, to see if her scent still lingered there.  The lump that formed in my throat is still there.  I think he likes it.  Now to get it finished!

There's a lot coming down the pipe for me.  As soon as I am finished here on Sunday, we are headed north to spend time with family for 2 weeks.  As soon as I get back, I'll be teaching at the summer art camp.  I have so much prep work to do that it makes my head hurt!  But I'll get it done.  And I'll enjoy doing it.

Success!

I've been out of town, sequestered in a windowless conference room for 11 hours a day, 2 days in a row, with 10 of my colleagues interviewing candidates for an open position at my university.  It was an exhausting, yet intellectually stimulating exercise, and I left with even greater respect and affection for my colleagues.  And I left energized and excited by the finalists we selected to bring to campus.  But I was also ITCHING to sew!

I brought a quilt to work on, but never made a stitch.  Instead, it just adorned my hotel room bed and kept me cozy warm the two nights I had to spend away from home.  I also brought my GFG hexies out of retirement.  I did end up taking a few stitches during breaks on day two, and managed to get one flower done and attached to another.

I made the one on the left yesterday, and attached it to the one on the right that was probably made 4 or 5 years ago. 

But when I got home, I realized the way I put them together won't work with what I have together already.  Note to self - add just one flower at a time to the whole.

Looks washed out in the sun, but lots of scrappy color in this quilt top. 

I got home very late last night, and enjoyed sleeping in this morning as my kids were spending the weekend at a friend's house in my absence.  But my Cub Scout meeting was this afternoon, and I had to prepare.  I spent my entire morning and early afternoon measuring, cutting and drilling to prepare for our woodworking project.  I didn't have time to make a prototype - I just had to hope that I had thought of everything and that it would come together.

Spoon basketball.  I adapted a plan I found online to make these. 

And it did!  The boys were thrilled with their projects, and spent a bit of time trying them out.

Now, the kids are in bed, I have a cup of tea and my new copy of Jennifer Chiaverini's The Giving Quilt, and I'm going to enjoy a bit of down time.  The weekend was busy and full of interactions with other people, but everything about it was a resounding success!

Prepare to be amazed

I don't really have anything of my own to show today.  Life has been ridiculously hectic.  I took my Orange Creamsicle quilt on the road with me this past Wednesday as I was driving all over creation visiting schools, hoping I'd get somewhere early and have time to sit and stitch.  Didn't happen. I'm working and hanging out with Cub Scouts all weekend, PLUS having my booth tomorrow (weather permitting) so I'm thinking I might step out of work early to sit on my porch and sit in the sun for an hour or two.  Gotta slow down sometime!

But while I was visiting schools this week, I saw something I just had to share.  I was visiting St. Anne's-Belfield School in Charlottesville, VA, and I stopped short when I saw this dress made by a student out of the pages of a book.  Isn't this AMAZING?

Even the flowers are made out of paper.

And check out the little paper butterflies!

Here's the girl modeling the dress she designed when they had their runway show (the counselor emailed me the photo after she saw how taken I was with the project).

I'm in awe.  I can barely sew two pieces of fabric together in a straight line with a machine, and she made this masterpiece from the pages of a book!  Be inspired, folks!  Create something today!

California bound!

You guys sure are good at making someone feel better - thanks!  My kids are good at it, too - Thank God for them!  On the way to the bus stop yesterday morning, they were singing Travis Tritt's "It's a Great Day To Be Alive" song at the top of their lungs.  How can I feel blue when I'm being serenaded by such cuties with such a wonderful message?

I'm leaving for the airport as soon as I log out - headed to California to present at a conference and college fair at Stanford.  I'll get the chance to reconnect with one of my college roommates tonight just outside San Francisco - yay!  I hate that we live a continent apart, but we actually see each other about twice per year, which isn't bad.

But I have long flights ahead of me.  I always envy the people with the neck pillows, but I'm too cheap to buy one.  Today, I took matters into my own hands and made one. 

I've been wearing it around the house all morning.  So far, it is pretty darned comfortable!  I think I want to make a patchwork one next...

I also sandwiched the Good Fortune Lil Twister quilt with this fun fabric - I had exactly enough, which to me was a sign that this was the right one and to stop pulling out everything in my stash to audition:

I'm taking it with me and praying that airport security doesn't take my safety pins and quilting needles.  Even though the baby isn't due until July, I found out yesterday that the baby shower is the first weekend in June.  Gotta get crackin"!  And just in case TSA robs me again, I have 4 books and my toothbrush needle and rag rug materials to work on, too.  By golly, I'm going to get SOMETHING done while I fly the friendly skies.

Have a great weekend, and to all you mothers out there - YOU ROCK!

All prepped and ready to go!

This is a high stress week at work.  We have our Accepted Students' event on Wednesday, and since there are many students we've admitted who can't afford to get here to see the school on their own, I've been playing travel agent to bring about 40 families from around the country to campus at our expense.  Which would be fine if the blasted kids wouldn't keep changing their minds and their plans!  Every time I think I have everything done, I get an email or a phone call that throws my best-laid-plans right out the window.

This kind of stress calls for therapy.  Sewing therapy.  Our quilt guild's annual retreat is coming up May 4 and 5, and we will be making quilts with the Lil Twister tool.  You know, this kind of quilt:

Photo borrowed from http://www.quilters-connection.com/classes.asp

My cousin will be having his first baby in July - this seems like a perfect way to knock out a quilt for the newest member of the family.

Is it true for you, too, that one of the hardest part of making a quilt is fabric selection?  I thought I'd make it easy by using some of the Good Fortune charms that I won from Linda a while back.  After all, Good Fortune is a great name for a baby quilt!  But I only really wanted the oranges and the greens and a touch of light blue.  Once I took out the purples and dark blues and pinks and grays from the Charm pack, I didn't have enough.  Into the stash I went, and found a darker orange and a darker green to sprinkle in there for POP.  And there was one orange piece from a City Weekend Charm Pack that seemed to go well, too, so I threw it in there.  And then, of course, I stalled out at border time.  It's pretty scrappy looking, which means I'll probably love the end result, but will my cousin?

Back to the drawing board.  I decided on a safer alternative for the baby - perhaps I'll make that other version for myself!  I alternated all of those purples and blues from the Good Fortune charm pack with a white.

There are some really fun fabrics in here.  Two of my favorites are:



Anyway, I am super impressed with myself that I am ready for the retreat nearly two weeks early!  Now, I just need to get ready to face the rest of this week at work.  If you don't hear from me, send survival thoughts my way.

Catching up with old friends

I survived our scholarship competition, a 3-day event that I organized for 165 high school students from around the world to experience my university and compete for scholarship packages worth a quarter million dollars each (yes, that's how much 4-years at a selective, private liberal arts school costs these days - yikes!). It is immensely rewarding for me when the competition comes together, but needless to say, I'm exhausted! All I can think of doing when I get home these last few days is rest.

So, I've been reconnecting with old friends, namely my THIMBLE, as I work on hand quilting the baby charm quilt, and BENNI HARPER, as I decided to read Earlene Fowler's books over again from the beginning. No fun photos for you, but know that YOU ALL are the next old friends I hope to catch up with; I haven't read anyone's blog in over a week. Thank goodness my job is cyclical in nature; if I were this busy all the time, I'd collapse in a useless heap.

Pictures, video links, and the future Miss America!!!

The only sewing I did yesterday was sewing the binding on a hot pad that I may or may not include with my UKE gift on Saturday - it doesn't look as good as I had hoped. Other than that, it was a 13 hour day away from the house - a full day at work, arranging to have my furnace and fireplace serviced, a visit to the library, flu shots for the kids, two karate classes, a quick drive thru at KFC for dinner, and then a Board Meeting. Ugh! Can you say "exhausted"?

So no pretty quilting photos, but I realized that I haven't yet shared photos from my trip to Latin America. There aren't many because I didn't take a camera, just my phone, and the memory got used up pretty quickly.

First stop, Mexico City. While walking down a street, I came across these wings - I was wondering where I had left these!

I visited El Castillo de Chapultepec (Chapultepec Castle). It was hard to get a photo of the outside of the castle because it was up on a hill and surrounded by foliage. But inside, wow! There were several carriages: (reminds me of Cinderella)

Beautiful artwork - and I'm not just talking about the painting - that frame is wood inlaid with miniature pieces of artwork!

Lots of stained glass, including an entire hall - this is one of about 8 or 10 scenes down that hallway.

The view from the castle over the city - Mexico City never ceases to amaze me - it is SO BIG!!!

Another day I went to El Centro Historico to pick up some trinkets for the kids and some co-workers from the street vendors. There were several street performances going on.


Next stop, Costa Rica! Here's the view from the balcony of my hotel room, looking out over a putting green with the city San Jose in the distance.

It is a great hotel - the Costa Rica Marriott San Jose, and I highly recommend it for anyone stopping in San Jose. If you care to view it, here is a link to a little video of the hotel that I took for the kids on the iPad so they could visualize where I was. Video of My Favorite Hotel

But the hotel wasn't the highlight of the visit to Costa Rica - the zip lines were! On the way to the cloud forest, we stopped at a roadside bodega to get water and use the facilities. Look what was growing right outside the rest rooms - COFFEE!!

The red bean is the ripe one, and if you squeeze it, out pop two little white coffee beans surrounded by what I can only describe as vernix. Ick! I prefer my coffee beans dry and brown, already roasted.

Anyway, I bought a whole CD of photos and videos from our ziplining adventure. A highlight for me (besides NOT DYING!) was the Tarzan Swing high out over a river.
Video of Erin on Tarzan Swing

After about 8 zip lines, I was feeling cocky and even let go for a split second. While going BACKWARDS, no less!
Video of Erin doing backwards zipline

Our 12th zipline was the longest, 550 meters face down over a river - that one ride lasted well over a minute. Here I am coming in for a landing, and grinning like a fool!
Video of Erin doing Superman zipline

Next stop, Guayaquil, Ecuador. I was only there for 14 hours, including getting a night's sleep and giving hour-long presentation at 3 schools, but during my free hour before my next flight, my driver took me to El Parque de las Iguanas - yup, you guessed what that is! Freaky! There were hundreds of them just hanging out and eating lettuce out of people's hands! (NOT my hands!)


Then we went to El Barrio Las Penas, the oldest part of town displaying coastal colonial architechture built onto the side of Santa Ana hill. It has recently been rehabilitated, and it is very cool that each renovated, brightly painted building has a photo of what it looked like before mounted on a plaque on an outside wall! Here I am at the bottom on the only street in the barrio, which is lined with art galleries. (Ignore my cheezy, squinty grin)


And here I am about halfway up - I couldn't go all the way because I didn't want to miss my flight!


In Quito, I didn't do anything very touristy besides visit a museum in the historic center of town and ride the trole (best ride I've ever gotten for 25 cents!). However, I did take a photo of this, Albert Einstein rendered in chocolate - a gift from the Colegio Einstein school, one of the many schools I visited. I ate about half of him, from the feet up, before I started to feel like I was OD'ing on chocolate.


I hope you enjoyed my travelogue! And now, for something TOTALLY random...

one of my favorite students, a top scholarship winner here at W&L and one of the sweetest, most helpful people you could ever hope to meet, is competing in the Miss America pageant. Part of the competition is raising money for The Children's Miracle Network. If even just 25% of my followers donate $5, she'll exceed her fundraising goal. Wanna help me help this phenomenal young woman acheive her dreams while helping enrich the lives of sick and injured children? The link to her personal page is https://www.missamericaforkids.org/m.aspx?i=26093f0+91b7ed373&e=3e44.

I promise you, this impressive young woman is the POLAR OPPOSITE of this poor girl:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQdhMSEqhfg&feature=player_embedded
(wrong of me to pick on this girl, I know, and I'm probably going straight to hell, but I couldn't resist!)

Bright sunshine-y day!

I had a bright sunshine-y day DESPITE the rain that poured down in West Virginia today. First of all, West Virginia is so beautiful that even the rain can't spoil the awe I feel when driving around the state. Secondly, I was quite popular at all of my school visits today; I hate going to a school and having no one to talk to, but that hasn't been an issue anywhere this year (knock on wood). And thirdly, and most importantly, this was the day that I finally got to meet a 4-year blogging buddy in person!!!

After my last school visit, I drove over to Clarksburg, WV to meet Becky at Classic Quilt Shop. I've gotta explore new quilt shops whenever possible when traveling. This cute little shop was bright and tidy and the owner was a sweetheart; I encourage you to visit if you are ever driving down 79 in West Virginia. I did my small part to help the economy and keep this LQS open - I picked up a few more goodies to add to my Embroidery Floss giveaway (on my last post if you missed it and would like to enter): some embroidery needles, some DMC floss holders (which I've never even heard of before, but I hate it when my floss gets tangled!!!), and 2 fat eighths of black and white butterfly fabrics - I bought fat quarters because I wanted some for myself, but I'm willing to share!


When we were done there, we headed over to Panera Bread to eat and get to know each other. It turns out, she's just as cool as I thought she would be, and hilarious to boot! We had some good laughs, talked about some books we've both read, travel, politics, family, etc. The time flew - I wish I had more time to get to know her!

And being quilters, OF COURSE we each had a little something for the other one. I gave her that snap shut coin purse I made earlier this week (I didn't mention on the blog that it was for her, just in case she read my blog before I saw her!) and the Independence Table Runner that I finished this year. It was originally made for her for PayItForward on Facebook, but I never got around to sending it to her. This meeting was perfect so I could give it to her.

Look what she gave me! She made this wonderful winter wallhanging, so I can FINALLY do some seasonal decorating - and it is embroidered (embroidery is definitely on my brain these days!). She did a beautiful job hand quilting it, and even added sparkley beads. I can't wait to hang it up!


Plus she gave me a bag of scraps (otherwise known as TREASURE in my sewing room). Look at all those Black and Whites for me to add to my Red/White/Black quilt! I'm tempted to rush home now and start sewing, never mind the day of school visits I have planned for tomorrow!


Thanks, Becky! I look forward to meeting you again, and let's not wait 4 years next time!

Enough already!

OK, guys, the fun is over, I am ready to go home. I am ready to trade these luxury hotels for my untidy home. I am ready to trade these solicitous waitpeople for my challenging children. I am ready to drive myself to work instead of having a chauffeur. I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but I miss my family, my house, my life.

I also miss sewing. I haven't done much sewing on this trip. The times when I could sit still and sew are in the airport, but after last year's highway (airport) robbery where TSA took all my needles and pins, I have put my sewing into my checked baggage. Oh well.

I have been able to read, though. I read "The Cat, The Quilt and The Corpse" by Leann Sweeney. I'd never heard of it before last week, but I enjoyed it. It is the first of the Cats In Trouble series. The protagonist is a quilter and cat-lover, and solves her first mystery. A classic cozy. I enjoyed it so much that I ordered the second book, "The Cat, The Professor and The Poison."

Then, I read Threading The Needle by Marie Bostwick. I'm in love with her town and her characters and the lives that they create for themselves. I have, and have enjoyed, all 4 of the Cobbled Court Quilts series.

Now I am starting Arlene Sachitano's Quilter's Knot. I've already read the first and the third in the series, and now I've added the second and the fourth to my collection. Honestly, they aren't my favorites because I don't feel all that connected to the characters, perhaps I need more character development, but I can't resist quilt fiction of any kind.

Anyway, some highlights from my trip so far (again, no photos because I have no way to transfer them on here yet):
In Mexico City - visiting El Castillo de Chapultepec (an honest to goodness castle!)
In Costa Rica - conquering my fear of heights and doing a zip line tour of the San Luis Canopy
In Guayaquil (Ecuador) - visiting El Parque de los Iguanas (no joke guys, a park with iguanas walking around everywhere freely amongst people - you could even PET them - I didn't)

Now I'm in Quito. There will be some shopping in my future for trinkets for my family and co-workers, but other than that and giving my spiel over and over and over (and over) at schools for the next two days, I think I will stay close to the hotel and just relax. I am exhausted! Please sew a few extra seams for me!

Surrounded by celebrities!

The good news - I got my iPad working again. The bad news - all the data and apps I had stored on there are gone. Oh well. At least I can blog, right?

I worked a bit on my September Birdie Stitches BOM last night while watching a Hugh Grant movie in spanish. I'm sure I missed a bit of the dialogue, but with no subtitles, it was easy to stitch and listen. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera and my phone doesn't work here, so I can't upload photos. Posts with no photos - how boring, right?

How's this for interesting - I seem to keep staying in hotels near celebrities. In Mexico City, I was staying at the JW Marriott. Right next door is the W (strange name for a hotel, I know. Seems a bit pretentious). Guess who was staying at the W, messing up traffic for all unsuspecting visitors around him. Justin Bieber. Barricades all outside with screaming girls AND WOMEN! Hilarious, except when I was trying to get a taxi and they weren't allowed through the barricades to get me and my luggage.

Here in Costa Rica, I just returned to the hotel from a day of school visits to find a horde of boys in soccer jerseys at the gate and very strict security to enter the property. Of course they let me through since I am staying here, and I arrived at the door which was surrounded by men with cameras - papparazzi, I presume. My taxi driver was having a fit of excitement - from what I understand, the Brazilian soccer team is staying here and there's a chap on the team named Ronald Hino who is apparently some big shot in the world of soccer. I know nothing, but again, I seem to be in the presence of greatness. I just pretended that the papparazzi were there for me, and exited the taxi as gracefully as possible. :)

Anyway, another day of visits here in Costa Rica, and then I am off to Ecuador. Hasta luego!

Technology woes!

I have so much to share from my travels so far, but when I arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica last night, I discovered that neither my iPad nor my Blackberry was functioning. WAH! I have photos from Chapultepec Castle that I visited, photos from the Historic Center of Mexico City/Zocalo where I visited vendors for trinkets marvelled at the old buildings. I was there when they ceremonially lowered the (ENORMOUS) Mexican flag in the center plaza. Everyone stopped walking and gathered around. Cars that were driving by stopped where they were in the streets and everyone got out and stood watching. Maybe it is a daily thing, but it was a moving experience.

Now, I am at a hotel that I've never stayed at in San Jose and let me tell you, it is NICE! My room has a small balcony that looks out over a golf course with the city and mountains in the distance. Last night it was magical, so I slept with my sliding glass doors open (I'm on the 4th floor, no worries, no one will walk in on me). Today, I am supposed to do a zip line canopy tour of a cloud forest if only they can find my reservation. I hope so - I took a late flight last night just so I could be here today to do this!

Anyway, unless I can get my iPad back up and running, you probably won't hear from me much until I get to Ecuador later in the week. I know there are internet cafes near my hotel in Quito where I can get cheap internet. Here in the hotel business center, I am paying $10/hour, so I can't linger. Have a great week, all!

Wnner! And losers...

Most first commenters on giveaway posts lament the fact that they are the first commenter, certain that they won't win. Not so this time - my Random Number Generator chose number 1, Linda from Illinois! Gotta wait until I get back in the country to mail it Linda; I forgot that my flight was at 6 AM so I had no chance to mail it today.

The losers I referenced in my title were a couple at the airport this morning. The flight was overbooked by one seat. I volunteered to stay behind for a later flight - I don't have to be anywhere until 8:30 AM tomorrow, and there was another flight that would get me here tonight and I'm always interested in the $400 travel vouchers. However, at the last minute, the captain radioed to the gate agent that they were going to be over the weight limit, so even though there were 2 empty seats on the plane, they could only take one more passenger. The two people who were supposed to be in those seats were a couple headed to a wedding. They refused to be separated and put up quite a fuss, but there was nothing the gate agent could do. I felt so bad for those two as I boarded the plane and they were left behind. I hope they finally got wherever they were going in time.

I, on the other hand, had two seats to myself on the otherwise full plane, and then had a row of 3 seats to myself on the plane from Atlanta to Mexico City. I arrived around noon, and after checking in at my hotel, walked around in this frou-frou neighborhood for a bit. I'm staying at the JW Marriott, as usual. Somehow I missed this the last two years (or forgot), but directly across the street is a Bentley car dealership, and just down the road, a Porsche dealership. Needless to say, I didn't do any shopping today because I can't afford anything in this part of town. It sure is nice to walk around in, though. I grabbed some tacos at an outdoor cafe, then came back to the hotel to rest. I'm pretty tired after my 4 AM wake up today to catch my flight. I chatted with the family using FACETIME on our iPads (genius! the kids even danced for me, it was great!), and then I nipped across the street to Starbucks to get a chocolate croissant for dinner. What's that you say? Croissants aren't dinner? Whatever, you only live once. Now, I'm debating heading down to the hot tub (outdoors) or just staying inside in the plush robe that comes with the room. Decisions, decisions, decisions. I'm not all that keen on being away from my family for so long, but travel isn't all bad!

After my conference presentations in the morning, I plan to head over to the Centro Historico to check out some museums and maybe make some purchases. I'd also like to check out Chapultepec Castle - we'll see if I have time. I'm not sure if I can get photos on here with only the iPad and my phone to work with, but I'll try. Plus, there may be another giveaway if I find anything interesting to buy during this week, so stay tuned!

Catching my breath

I don't know why I do this to myself.

I arrived home on Sunday after a miserable travel day (5:15 AM wakeup call to catch an early flight, plane malfunction - discovered while we were in the air!, diverted to a new airport and switched to a new plane, turbulence that resulted in the lady behind me breaking my eardrums with her screams and the gal next to me dousing my lap with her drink, and when we finally arrived - late, of course - no luggage!). Monday, I was swamped at work, then had 2 karate classes and grocery shopping to do. Yesterday I was so strung out at work that I never stopped for lunch AND worked late AND brought my computer home to get some more things done.

However, when I arrived home with my kiddos, the sun was shining, there was a gentle breeze dancing over our mountain, and I said "ENOUGH!" I got a tall, frosty glass of ice water, pulled a picnic blanket out of the car, and settled myself down on the lawn with some books to read to the kids. I had to catch my breath - all this running hither and yon gets to be too much sometimes. We finished reading HOLES (just in time, too, because the movie is supposed to arrive from Netflix today!) and read DONKEY DONKEY, a book that I remember loving when I was a kid, so I ordered it online (can I just say that I LOVE Amazon Prime! I ordered the book on Monday afternoon, and it was in my mailbox on Tuesday!). I petted the cats, I brushed out the dogs. I caught my breath.

At that point, I could have gotten some work done, but I was on a roll now. I helped the kids with their homework, and then headed downstairs to prep some sewing to take on my next trip. (I leave tomorrow morning for Mexico, Costa Rica and Ecuador - another early flight with a 4 AM wakeup call, sheesh!) I sandwiched the little pink and brown doll quilt and stuffed the pillow to go with it (oops, no photo). I made another pillow for Rosabelle the dog (oops, no photo again, but it was nothing fancy anyway), and in between times, I worked some more on my current Leaders and Enders project with 1.5" scrap squares.

These blocks are 6.5" unfinished, and I'm not sure where I'm going with them. The point is to use up the black floral that is surrounding half of the blocks. I had a whole stack of 4.5" squares of that, and I wanted to use them up.

So, for this trip, in addition to packing the doll quilt and my September Birdie Stitches BOM to work on, I'm going to pack these, which I also ordered from Amazon on Monday, and which also arrived yesterday:

While browsing on Amazon, I saw that there are 2 Clare O'Donohue books that I don't yet own and a new Jennifer Chiaverini book coming out in November. Can you hear me rubbing my hands together in anticipation? I LOVE QUILT FICTION! Reading and quilting are two of my favorite pasttimes, so putting them together is a winning combination for me!

If you like batiks, don't forget to enter my birthday giveaway for 2 half yard cuts of batiks from Ghana. I will choose the winner tonight before I go to bed, and pop the box in the mailbox tomorrow on my way to the airport.

Do you know the "law of tenfold return" - give and you shall receive back tenfold? (I'm paraphrasing, I don't know the exact quote, although I am pretty sure it originated in the Bible) I know this to be true, and yet another example of this was waiting for me when I got home this weekend. I bought some fabric to give to others, and in my mailbox, from my mom and younger sister, was a box containing this - a pattern for Skiers in the Air and yards and yards of FLANNEL fabric to make it!!! Thank you, Mom and Kerry! Great gift that I will DEFINITELY put to good use!

And wanna see my favorite card? This is from my college roommate for my birthday this year:

I'm glad she thinks I'm remarkable - I'm going to need to be remarkable to get done all that needs doing today! I'll be out of the country until October 8, so I need to get all my affairs in order today, then on October 9 I have a group of 13 students visiting campus at my invitation for 3 days. And during the 28 hours between my return on the 8th and their arrival on the 9th, guess what is happening? Some of you probably guessed it - a cub scout campout!

I'll end the way I started...I don't know why I do this to myself!

Bee Activity

We had our office retreat this week. Longtime followers will remember that we go to a wonderful lodge in the middle of the Virginia countryside, Fort Lewis Lodge, for two days of debriefing and goal-setting and bonding. I absolutely love it there! It is so serene and beautiful (with a quilt on every bed!). I didn't go kayaking this year, but I did go for a walk/run, spent a few minutes in the hot tub, and ate embarrassingly large quantities of their fantastic food. I justify myself by saying, "Well, it is a retrEAT, after all!"

(this photo, lifted from the Fort Lewis Lodge website, is of the outdoor pavilion where we have our meetings and where we hang out in front of the fire after the days work is done. Seriously, if you are ever visiting SW Virginia and looking for a spectacular place to say, I can't recommend this place highly enough)

When I arrived home on Thursday, I received my fabrics for the September Bee Block. I whipped it up yesterday, and will put it in the mail today.

I also received another of my August blocks back. (curious - even though I got my fabrics out to Bee participants early in the last week of July, I've only received 4 blocks back so far in the first week of September - is that normal?) Anyway, this block was worth the wait - it is wonderful!

Plus, she threw in some bonus black and white prints for me - I love the one with the fancy ladies walking their fancy dogs!


My quilting goals for this long weekend are to finish my June Birdie BOM and prep my August and September blocks so I can take them on the road with me (my first trip of the travel season starts a week from today - back to Atlanta), to make some more progress hand-quilting the Pick and Choose quilt, and practice some free motion quilting on some hot pads for my kitchen. My home life goals for this weekend are to enjoy a campout with the kids, complete my online training for cub scout den leader for this year, and clean up this pigsty I call a home.


I understand there are some people out there who actually enjoy cleaning. Are any of you strange creatures reading my blog? If so, do you want to come visit me?