Apple Bakers? hmmm a first for me...

AND they are giving away a set of 4!!!
Visit LaneyPottery.com to see the Pottery Apple Bakers for yourself. They look really cool.....

I've been Boo-ed on my Birthday!!

Yep I'm 35 today...

The gifts were awesome...Iowa hawkeye pajama pants, Jo-Ann's giftcards, a potluck tomorrow....

AND on top of that! I have been Boo-ed by Cootiebug.....

Now I get to Boooo some friends....so I am Boo-ing

Karen
Jackie

Jen

Dandelion Quilts
So gals if you'd like to Boo someone...copy the picture...get your Boo-card and blog it!

Stitcher's Angel....

I mailed out my Stitcher's Angel swap on the 15th and Gudrun just emailed that she's received it!! I did take pictures but I can't find them now :( boohoo....Check out Gudrun's website and see all the fun stuff...plus she received 2 other packages with mine....so she had a fabulous start to her!!

Nice People Nice Things...

They arrived! I LOVE these stitcheries....just love them. I didn't get to look at much of them yet as we have still been battling the little one being ill. I got mine directly from Helen here. The conversion rate isn't too bad right now with Australia. Here she is...still miserable. It's been 6 day and she's got Croup. All I know is that tonight was a real challenge to my parenting. Deciding whether or not she was sick, hungry, tired or just spoiled. I tried every thing I know. I put her to nap at 5:45pm...that's super late! She had cried for nearly 45 minutes before that. It was safer for her to be in her crib. Anyhow, she was up at 7:30 crying again. I managed to get her to eat non diary whip used for ice cream topper. Still she cried. I put on Blues Clues and set some pretzels by her....a few minutes later..she ate 1 pretzel....then another and another.....and before you know it she'd eaten 20 pretzels sticks...small ones. Then she had a bite of cookie (yes I WILL get mother of the year for her diet!) but she moved on to milk and then some popcorn. I figured that whatever she'd eat...she'd get as long as she stopped crying! It worked. Turns out all she needed was food and drink but she was in such a tizzy that she couldn't communicate that or even know she was hungry. All seems o-k now and her voice is coming back.

Back to NPNT....grace decided she wanted to read all the stitcheries. I didn't object because she's practicing her reading.

She whispered to me...."mom here's your favorite"....

And I said "yes, it is".....

Interesting list

I found this list on another blog...once I copied the list...I can't find the blog again. It's driving me crazy!! At any rate, I thought it was an interesting list. A list of the top 100 books I believe. I went through the list and highlighted in bold letters the ones I have read. I wish I could say I've read more. I am going to make it a point to read at lease one unread book by the end of this year...could be ambitious... still I am going to try. Oh and I read that the average number read is 6 out of 100. I think I have read 21! Still only 1/5th. I'd be WAY ahead IF watching the movie counted...LOL
Here's the list....

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Duma
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces -John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
So there’s my list. How many have you read?

Ginger

Ok I just have to post this. For any family members out there reading my blog. Friday afternoon the girls and I were sitting at the kitchen table having lunch. The conversation went something like this:

Grace: "Mom, is Elly still sick?"

Me: "yes, she's very sick, honey"

Elly: "AWWW-daydey..." (in a horse raspy voice....daydey=gracie)

Grace: "awe Elly", "Mom you need to give Elly some ginger"

Me: "why?"

Grace: "because it always feels me better"

Me: "how do you know that? and where did you hear that?"

Grace: "Achachi (grandma) gave it to me. It's digusting, but Elly probably likes it".

Me: " how do we make it?"

Grace: "I don't know ask dad"

Me: "maybe we need Achachi to make it, I don't know if dad knows how to make it"

And the conversation ended...I believe the "ginger" she was referring to is actually hot tea with ginger and lemon juice that my mother in law has Grace drink when she's sick. It's an herbal cure for stuffy head, nausea etc. What I find interesting is that Grace remembers and suggested it for Elly as though it's a common thing. Although , it always "feels her better" she pointed out how yucky/disgusting it tastes LOL

Pincushion winners!

This last week has been crazy. My sister was here helping us paint the house we are trying to sell. Thank goodness she was. It really helped. We were able to get sooo much done. I didn't get any quilting done though.

Now my little one is sick...cough, 102 fever, and laryngitis...ok so the fact that she can't scream...doesn't bother me but the fever is bad. She's been to the doctor and they said it's a virus so we've been using tylenol and baths to help the fever. I think she's a bit better today. She was even willing to draw some names for the pincushion giveaway......And the winners are.........

Mar, Mamabug and Jeanne!!! Congrats! I've sent you all an email for your information.

Now I am off to try and sew a bit while she naps.

More puttering...

I have been working on this quilt for a couple of months. It may be hard to see the details but there are giant praire points, yo-yo's, ruffles ect. When I saw this quilt on an Australian blog I had to have it. So I ordered it from The Birdhouse. I love Lakehouse fabs and this just looked fun. It was challenging....the ruffles about did me in LOL. It is far from perfect but I still love it. This is on my design wall....it's not my usual style. My DD1 loves it. She loves the colors. This is from the 5 and dime pattern. I am not sure I will even like this when it's done...we'll see LOL.


Also, there is another WAY cool giveaway here. There are 2 ways to win...and awesome prizes~~~

My favorite sponsor is Sublime Stitching for sure.

Pie plus a couple of giveaways...

Dutch Apple Pie to be exact. My hubby and I made it last night. OK..I fess up... I cut the apples and he assembled. He is a much better cook than I. But it still tasted great!
I did finish a few items this weekend...7 pincushions....I puttered around on several other projects but nothing to blog yet.
I have 3 unclaimed pincushions. Leave me a comment on what you like to read on blogs and I will put your name the draw for one. Post about my giveaway on your blog...and I'll give you another chance. I will draw on October 24th...my nephews birthday!
Also Pigtails and Snails is giving away this great quilt or the pattern if you are a runner up......I LOVE her fabric choices!!!!!

Doing well here.

But....I was tempted again to buy online. This time from Hancock's of Paducah. I found some great close-out deals on "Flirt" and Summer's Basket. I have FQ's and charms packs for projects from each line. These will be backings or borders. I have been looking and looking for a light colored batik and took a chance on this print on the bottom. It actually has a blue/purple tint to it but it will work fabulously with my Mulberry Bali Pop! I've cut it and have some pinned for piecing. I am going to make a quilt from the "Jelly Quilts" book. So simple but I think it will pack a punch with the bali's (post coming in future). In addition to the yardage....I bought charm packs oh yes I did......Portugal...I NEEDED (LOL) to make some Posie's (post coming) to coordinate with a quilt I am making with this line (post coming-- I promise). I also pickied up some Peace of Earth to use with a Bunny Hill pattern "I believe in Angels" that I started. There is a little Maypole and Nest in there as well...but for between $2.98 and $3.98 a pack...how could I pass them up??
Anyhow, I have been plugging away at the pink/brown pincushions...and another quilt I started a few months ago. I hope to have the borders and pictures made by the end of the day. Cross your fingers for me.

Huge fall giveaway...

check this out..40+ bloggers giving!!! I have only been to maybe 10 blogs...I hope I can get to all of them! Here's the link for the Fall into Fall Giveaway.

It's Tuesday?

I should be watching the debate. Ok I was...and I just had to take a break so here I am. On sunday Dh used some of the apples from the orchard to make apple fritters. They were amazing. I know it's not the most gourmet picture but I wanted to show them off. Now I have done some more sewing. I had planned on making 4 gateau pincushions using Fig Tree Quilts' pattern. I don't make half square triangles very well so I counted out some thangles and started sewing. Somehow I ended up counting wrong and now have 8 pieced blocks for pincushions!!! Yes ....8..and what am going to do with 8????
Anyhow, so far one done...and several in various stages of production.....
I have already given this pincushion away to one of my staff who said she only had 1 pincushion. I knew she'd appreciate it. I still need 4 pincushions for gifts....and that will leave 3 if I can get them done. Perhaps a giveaway is in the future...when I finish them!

Fun at the Orchard...

Today was kids at day at our local apple/fruit orchard. The girls picked apples and went on a hayride around the orchard. It was perfect weather, sunny and about 50 degrees...not too hot or cold...a crisp fall morning...LOVED it.... DD1.....
DD2...notice her little feet sticking out!

The view from the hayride...
I'm in the mood for decorating...speaking of decorating...did you notice my new look? I copied the idea from Dandelion Quilts and went straight away to Ally's blog and found me a cool layout. It took some tweaking...but it looks fairly good. Now I am off to try to sew. I have some super super cutey things I am making.

Vintage Fruit....

Um how did I forget to post this...I finished it last week. I love this pattern so much I'd like to make every design....I need more hours in my day! Update....you can find this pattern on Bareroots website.....

It's Friday YEAH!!!

Ok I have been super lax in posting but things have been hectic on the home front. I just HAVE to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my sister...She's 30 today!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ann, I wish I was home to celebrate with you and a big Happy Joe's Pizza.....


Anyhow, I have slowly been working on The Noah's Ark Stitcheries by Lynnette Anderson. 4 done and I think 4 to go so far...she adds a new part each month. I am working on 2 cows at the moment. The carpets were being cleaned today ( necessity with 2 cats!) and so I went to my local quilt shop. Brought home a bit of fun...the JUMBO yo-yo maker.....and American Patchwork and quilting mag...
When I got home, I sat down and made a 3.5 inch yo-yo immediately.
My review of this maker (if you don't have one already) is that is requires a much larger square/circle of fabric than I imagined. I think I used a 7 inch square to make this yo-yo. It's size makes it a bit more clumsy to use. AND you have to use a LOONNNNNG piece of thread...yes you draw it up but until it's drawn up...you need alot. Will I use it again? Absolutely...as soon as I post this LOL....I am dreaming up what nifty little projects I could use these yo-yo's for.