Don't you love the fair?

I enter a quilt in the County Fair every year, not with any illusions of winning anything, (although I did get Honorable Mention one year with this mini quilt that is now hanging in my office on a WalMart necklace)

but to get feedback from someone other than my friends, who are wonderfully supportive and probably wouldn't be as frank about the things I need to work on as they could be. I also love going to quilt shows with lots of quilts, and I can't really expect others to put their quilts in if I'm not brave enough to put mine in. Anyway, Ithink I know which quilt I'll be entering in the County Fair this year:

I just love it! I finished putting on the binding last night. I used to hate binding, but I think that was before I realized that I could sew binding and watch movies at the same time. It took four episodes of "Rosemary & Thyme", but it wasn't nearly the onerous activity I always assume it will be.

And speaking of fairs, I learned yesterday that Earlene Fowler has a new Benni Harper book due out in May, State Fair.

You can bet I'll be buying it - I have the rest of the series. I've been waiting very patiently, I think. It is too bad that it takes her a year to write these books, because it only takes me a day or two to read them!

In need of color!

I'm trying to not let all this snow get me down. I'm trying to not envy my children who are relaxing at home while I am (supposedly) toiling away at work. All this white is starting to depress me - I need some color! Although Donald and I did marvel at these cute little frozen trees by the creek yesterday - "Look Mom! The trees are sparkly!"

I've been keeping my Bright Ideas Quilt close at hand. I "finished" quilting it this weekend, and I'm now sewing down this yellow binding that I pulled from my stash and which seemed perfect to accent both the back and the front.

I say "finished" because I'm pretty sure I'm going to add more quilting. It is hard for me to set something aside and finally say it is done.

Jason and I are on a 5-day "diet" to earn our SELF-DISCIPLINE patches in karate. Our version of the diet is "only fruit for breakfast" and "at least 8 glasses of water a day". Fruit salad is colorful, right? So that's what I made the kids for breakfast this morning, in colorful bowls to boot.

That cheered me for a few moments.

But now I'm at work, my fruit is long gone, I'm sick of drinking water, and here's the kicker - I added the challenge for me to not drink coffee or tea (except herbal) or hot chocolate for those 5 days. Someone just brewed a fresh pot of coffee, and the aroma is wafting up the stairs to taunt me.

Please, I implore you, leave a comment sending warm, colorful love my way!

Snowbound, yet again

What do you do when you are snowbound for three days?

Watch movies - I watched a Tyler Perry movie I've never seen, plus two more Rosemary & Thyme episodes. I'd never heard of Rosemary & Thyme until two weeks ago, but now I am hooked. They are two middle-aged women with a gardening business in the UK who also find themselves solving crimes wherever they go. I love the dynamics of their relationship, their dry humor, their vulnerabilities. And a must for me is color, and there is lots of vivid color in these shows. Which makes me wonder...I thought it rains all the time in the UK. It certainly did when I spent a few months there back in '96. Yet, I've only ever seen in rain once in about 5 episodes. But that is besides the point - I love this show.

Quilt - I wanted to get my Bright Ideas Quilt completely quilted this weekend, but I'm not convinced it is going to happen. I've certainly made quite a bit of progress, though. I also spent a few minutes in the quilting studio last night, sewing together one row of my ribbon quilt and cutting a few of the extra pieces I'll need to put an additional row all the way around.

Clean - I abhor cleaning, but I just couldn't take the bathrooms anymore. There are 4 of them - ugh! When will my boys master their aim?

Cook - I LOVE to eat. Cooking is another matter altogether. Thank goodness for my slow cooker. On Friday, I made a big, delicious pot of 15-bean soup with smoked sausage. I don't make it very often; so infrequently, in fact, that I forget how potent 15 beans can be. I'm so glad my husband has a sense of humor. I just wish he had eaten some, too, so I wouldn't have been the only one embarrassing herself. :)

Play - The kids have gone outside for some snow adventures every day, and I have satisfied myself with watching through the window. However, I have been a princess and a bad guy (not at the same time) during some raucous indoor games. I was also featured in two masterpiece paintings. In the first, Jason painted me in my quilt studio:

(Do you see all the colors on my chair? He painted my newly covered chair. My sewing machine is white, but he painted it red here, so it would show up. And behind it, one of my quilt frames, conspicuously empty. I want to put a quilt in there to work on, but I'm afraid I'll get distracted from my Bright Ideas quilt, so I am waiting until that quilt is done before I load up the frame. And no, I don't have a chandelier in my quilt studio. I think that is what they call "artistic license.")

Donald painted a picture of the family outside by the tree with the swing. I'm the yellow one.


Oh, and I did lots and lots of work. One of these days, I want to have a job that does not infringe upon weekends, evenings, snow days or any other family time, a job that stays neatly within the confines of my work space and waits patiently for me until I return to the office. Do those types of jobs exist?

Anyway, I have one last day at home. I'm going to try to knock out some more work while the kids are still slumbering, and then make the most of these last few hours. Tomorrow is the beginning of another 12-day straight work stint. Ugh, ugh, ugh!!!

Just a quick note

Life and work have been super busy, so I don't have time to linger, but I just wanted to share my joy...

1) Hubby's team won again last night. Next up, they play the #1 Division 3 team in the country tomorrow night. Here's hoping they keep their heads and beat them - what an accomplishment that would be!

2) My new Bonnie Hunter book, Adventures with Leaders and Enders, arrived yesterday. I stayed up late last night reading (or at least looking at) every single page. Love it, love it, love it! If any of you have it, I see a "Mad City Mama" variation in my future!

Attitude adjustment

I've been moaning and groaning about this awful winter weather long enough. So, instead of hustling the kids off to bed last night and sitting down with some quilting, I bundled up them up for some nighttime fun in the snow - after all, there is no school today (AGAIN!!) so no need to go to bed on time. We sledded, we built a snowman, we had a major snowball fight. We were out there until nearly 10 PM. And you know what? It was FUN! All I needed was an attitude adjustment. Hopefully, that attitude adjustment will last at least another week, because we are supposed to get a whopper of a snowstorm this weekend.

While shoveling before work this morning, I decided to snap some photos. After all, I've lived here 7 years, and this is the first time we've had any snow to speak of.

The view down the hill from my driveway


My road - great for a scenic walk any time of year.


One of my two favorite trees on our property - this one is beautiful in any season, and I can see it from my bedroom window first thing when I open my eyes in the morning.


Home! I usually don't look back on my way to work in the morning, because I am always so tempted to turn right back around and stay there!


The creek is no longer raging, but I'm sure it will be again once all this winter's snows melt.


So, no more complaining about the weather. Bring it on!

Despondency

Jason is despondent. School was closed yesterday because the roads out here in the county are still covered with snow. He's starting to think that the school week is only 4 days long because the bad weather we have had nearly every weekend has affected school nearly every Monday.


Donald was despondent. The thought of going to Pre-School while his brother was at home doing whatever he wanted made those big green eyes turn to liquid. Along with his eyes, my resolve, so he stayed home, too.


I was despondent. Things were finally a bit quieter at work, so I took Monday morning off - a little "me" time. Unfortunately, my kids don't understand the concept of "pretend Mommy is not here", so that didn't quite work out as planned. I eventually rode in to work with Adam so I could hang out with the Monday morning quilting group at the library where I got a tiny bit of hand quilting done, not nearly the progress I was hoping to get done yesterday during my time off.


And when I got home from work, the kids were ready to do something other than dress up and play superheros or watch TV (I'm pretty sure that is all they do when I am not here). So once dinner was in the oven, I took them downstairs to let Jason work on his flannel rag quilt. His quilt got kicked off the design wall when I started working on my Nickelmania quilt. (I think this is the pattern I'm going to go with, although I believe I'll put one more row around each side so that the white outline is complete)

We had quite a time trying to remember how it went back together until I remembered that we took a photo of it - thank goodness for digital cameras! He sewed until all of the pieces were at least sewn to one other piece, and then we called it quits - I could smell the lasagna and garlic bread in the oven and could no longer focus. Before putting it away, however, he made row labels so it wouldn't take us so long to lay it out next time.


In addition to restless children, there was a package waiting for me at home. I thought it would be my new Bonnie Hunter book, but instead, it was more flannel from Cheryl - thanks, Cheryl! My flannel buzzsaw quilt will get completed after all!


So, all was well in the Hutchinson household until I got the call this morning - school is closed again...

Ribbons and string

I've been thinking about cancer a lot lately, about family and friends that I've lost, family and friends who are fighting as I type. It rears its ugly head in books and movies and news broadcasts without warning and without apology. You've probably noticed my CLICK DAILY link to the Breast Cancer Site on my sidebar. I am vigilant about clicking, vigilant about wearing my Pink Ribbon Pin, vigilant about checking myself in hopes that I will be around to watch my children become senior citizens.

Therefore, I wasn't surprised while rearranging blocks for my Nicklemania quilt yesterday to see that it was taking shape as a ribbon. I like it. I just don't know which arrangement I like better. I don't have all my blocks cut yet, but I think you can see where I was going with these two arrangements. Which do you like better?

While I was sewing, the kids were being "hooligans" here in the house - Jason's word, not mine. They only lasted a few minutes out in the snow - none of us really like the cold - so they created with Legos, put tattoos on their chests, pretended they were spies and even made tin can telephones. They had to talk where they could see each other because otherwise they couldn't coordinate who was supposed to be talking and who was supposed to be listening. No surprise there - these are the two most talk-ingest kids I have ever met!