WOW....what a nice prize!!!

I've been mostly coughing and trying to sleep for the past few days (as well as doing the few out-of-the-house activities that couldn't be easily cancelled). I am starting to feel a TINY bit more human today, so I hope I've turned the corner. This morning was my self-imposed deadline for calling the doctor......but I'm going to see if I'm still feeling better after lunch and, if I am, then I think I can ride this out with the over-the-counter meds. (My choices are limited to ones that can be taken by folks with high blood pressure.) ANYWAY........yesterday, I was delighted to get a message from blogging pal, Judy Laquidara, telling me I'd won her "thread guessing" contest. Back in the fall, she'd challenged her blog readers to guess how long a rather large cone of thread would last her. By pure dumb-luck, I was the one to guess correctly the day on which she'd run out of thread on that spool. The prize she is giving is a super one......it's a $50 gift certificate to a store called The Village Mercantile in Indiana!!! Woo-Hoo....isn't that terrific?? I have been looking at their website and changing my mind many times over what I will purchase. Part of me says to get something I'd not be likely to buy for myself....and another part is drooling over some of the fabric and some of the kits. What to do.....what to do??? THANKS, Judy, for a really super prize and a nice pick-me-up for me on a day when I wasn't feeling well. And thanks to the many of you who have contacted me with "get-well" messages!

More fun with Jessi.....

I have gotten some kind of bug........either a bad upper respiratory infection or some kind of mild flu bug (should be mild since I had the flu shot). Hubby had it and refused to function for a few days with it......I got it late in the day on Sunday and soldiered on with Jessi here. (You know how that is.....the females don't have time to get sick when the kids need tending!!! LOL) Anyway......here are a couple of photos of more fun things done with Jessi.....

Making pine cone feeders for the birds and squirrels (and just missed a photo of a squirrel enjoying one yesterday)......
Swimming at an indoor pool (which she had never been to an indoor pool and had no idea any existed....so she was VERY excited about this).As for me, now that my babysitting is done (Jessi is back at home now), I am going to lay low and hope I feel better soon. I have a full day of meetings as well as bell practice tomorrow, but with the way I feel now (like I've been run over by a truck), I doubt I'll be able to manage such a full schedule in 24 hours. I just hope Jessi didn't get this bug from me........UGH.

A movie and sliders!

Yesterday I took Jessi to see Gnomeo and Juiliet. It was very cute and the Elton John music was a lot of fun. Afterwards, she wanted to help make dinner and wanted to make cheeseburger sliders. She is a pretty fussy eater but I knew she had eaten them at Friendly's. So...I agreed. She helped prepare them and we had a nice dinner courtesy of our little cook. (Don't worry, I did the stove!) She also helped make brownies for dessert.

She made the burger patties and I cooked them......she broke the cheese slices up into perfect quarters for me to put on the burgers near the end of their cook time and she cut up the hot dog rolls to make them be "slider" buns (since we couldn't find any slider buns in the store).
Here is the proud little cook putting the platter of sliders on the table. She also wanted to use napkin rings when she set the table. I love it when she is interested in these kinds of things. (She also loves to dust knick knacks and furniture and clean windows and ASKS to do it!!!)Today we will do a craft project of some sort and tomorrow we will go swimming at an indoor pool nearby. It's been a fun weekend so far.

Fun day yesterday and fun weekend ahead....

Yesterday, our little Lakeside Ladies' group got together....all 5 of us......for the first time in quite awhile. There have been some serious family illness issues for two of our group, so between that and the holidays and my vacation, we've not had a chance to get together. It was nice to see each other. We didn't do any sewing, but a LOT of talking (and nibbling on goodies) took place!!! Hopefully, we get together to sew again soon. The photo here is of the 5 of us....Kaye is seated and standing (left to right) are Sherry, Joanne (no blog), me, and Linda (also no blog). We were so happy to be together again!

Now I have a fun weekend ahead as we will get my 6-year-old granddaughter, Jessi, tonight and will have her until Monday night. Her school has a 4-day weekend, so we are having her here for a visit. The weather is supposed to be nice tomorrow...nice enough to get outside, so that should make for some extra fun for the three of us!

A new project.....

Of course I have a nearly uncountable number of unfinished projects, BUT....since my friend, Pat, was kind enough last week in Atlanta to give me the tree skirt pattern she designed, I decided to start work on that. I used the fabrics shown here (8 different ones) and cut them into strips. Soon I will sew them into strip sets and then use a 10 degree wedge ruler to cut the strip sets. Once assembled, it will make a very nice tree skirt.

I have a quilted jacket in progress as part of a "brown bag" quilt challenge online and I think that is supposed to be completed for March, so I better dig that out and resume work on it this week, too.

My break from the medical typing job continues for another couple of weeks, so I hope to get more sewing done during the rest of this month.

Back to reality......

The vacation is over and I'm back to reality.....kicking a bit and screaming because I miss seeing the friends I saw on the trip......Sharon and her hubby, Carolyn and her hubby, Julie, Jackie, Nancy, Pat, Gene, Michelle and Vito.....and I miss the warmer weather and the palm trees and the whole Disney experience. But......back to reality I must be. I have to tell you that I have fallen so far behind on reading blogs over the past 3 weeks that I'm not even going to attempt to go back and read what I missed, so I hope you will all forgive me for that. (If you know there is something that happened that you blogged about and really wanted me to know, please get in touch with me and fill me in on your news.) It might help me get back to reality if I post an occasional picture from the trip, so.....for now, I'll post these two. I do get a kick out of Chip & Dale!

Purchases and gifts.....

Several of you have asked what I bought in the fabric shops when I was with Pat and Gene on Thursday. Below I have put photos of the purchases as well as gifts from both of them and another fabric purchase made earlier in the week in Florida.

Gifts from Pat W........a traveling quilter's kit, triangles on a roll, a Jim Shore kitty, a quilted tree skirt pattern of hers that I've been coveting and was planning to buy AND a bag of Cheetos. (What is funny is that she gave a bag of them to Gene, also, along with some gifts AND I'd given her a box with two bags of Cheetos in there! (They are her favorite quilting snack...of course, chocolate is another favorite....and I gave chocolate to Gene.) Check out Pat's Silver Thimble store for her patterns and she has a book that is in the works...to be published by Martingale in the fall.
Gifts from Gene.......my flash washed the photo out so it doesn't do justice to these....but you should go to his website and look for his artwork. These notecards are beautiful and they are reproductions of some of his paintings. He is one super-talented guy.......paints beautifully, makes nice jewelry, and does wonderful quilting!Flannels purchased (on clearance) in Florida for a collection I'm building (mostly greens) to make a rag quilt with my GO rag die.Some Christmas fabrics that will be added to ones I have already at home and will be used to make one of the tree skirts in the pattern Pat W gave to me.A 10 degree wedge ruler that is needed to make the tree skirt.Some "dotted" fabrics to be added to my ever-growing collection at home of polka-dot fabrics. SOMEDAY I will decide what I'm going to do with all these dots!!!I did buy 4 other items, but since they are gifts for the gals in my little quilting group (and some of them read my blog), I'm not going to picture them here.

What a FUN day!!!

Yesterday I had the chance to meet TWO blogging friends......Pat Wys and Gene Black. We shopped (for fabric, of course) and had lunch and exchanged some goodies....and had a really fun time! The only problem was...the day went too quickly. Thanks for the memories, you two!

Me......Pat W......and GeneAnd now we start to make our way back home to Delaware...........all nice vacations must come to an end, I guess.

St. Augustine and the beach.....

We went to the old town area of St. Augustine yesterday and then walked by the ocean and found some nice shells on the way back to our friend's house. The air temperature was 70 but the water was cold.....we put our feet in anyway. Loved the blue skies and warm sun and will miss them as we drive up to the Atlanta (Georgia) area today. It will be tough putting a winter coat back on...that's for sure!Me and my friend, Nancy, braving the chilly water but enjoying the sunshine!