Running Stitch

Goodbye Blogger

2005-04-12T09:11:00.000-07:00

After two weeks of mishaps I can finally post to blogger again....but too bad...I've moved in the mean time...Come check me out. Running Stitch

Up, up and Away

2005-03-31T21:23:00.000-08:00

Well, I think the little guys' fever finally broke around 1pm last night. He seemed to get cooler and he fell asleep (thank you!) and slept till about 6:30 this morning. Of course before that he threw up all over are bed, and cried miserably from about 10 to 11:30. Poor Mr. Moo.

In running news, I ran 3.5 this morning (stumbled is a more accurate report of my form) because I've started to FREAKING PANIC about my half is T-minus nine days. I've been sick for two weeks, and now I have got to run me eleven miles Sunday. Without, hurling or succumbing to diarrhea. Non-running diarrhea. TMI? No problem, anytime.

Holy Kitty Cats Batman! I finished the Month of Softies, three hours under the wire.

Let’s not tell the world that the bottom of that tree is stuffed with socks because we ran out of stuffing…..oops.

When I was young, I loved to climb trees. High in the Sky apple pie trees. Up, up and away from my younger siblings. I'd take the book of the moment, most often a Nancy Drew mystery, to the highest spot and read out of the reach of grubby little fingers.

Sometimes I would just lounge in the tree listening to the wind blow through the leaves, is there anything more relaxing?

I'm represented here by the monkey, she needs a little work, but then I thought that was perfect, because we all need a little work, and after all it was more about the tree for me.

The tree is a little whimsical, but then, so are my childhood memories. I used the template I made for this tree, and I really like the effect. Someone, might be getting this as a birthday present, it might not be a surprise if she is reading this!

Pukefest '05

2005-03-31T14:45:00.000-08:00

Well Pukefest ’05 appears to be over. Poor Mr. Moo has spent most of the day staring blankly at Baby Einstein, or holding on to my leg “mama mama mama mamamamamamamamama”. He has eaten probably two whole piece of toast in the last twenty four hours.

There were some rough hours yesterday where I thought I was going to hurl as well. I’m pretty excited to have spent two of the last three weeks of my half marathon training, sick. After Mr. Moo’s next nap we are going for a walk, because I feel able to handle a walk. And Jonah die of forgotten dog disease, if we don’t go for one.

So not much happening here besides holding babies and thinking about quilts. Hopefully I’ll get to check in with more of my Blog list later today and post my entry for Month of Softies, which believe it or not, I'm done, with a day to spare. Except I'm not really done because I ran out of stuffing...so off to Joann's when I drop off Pixie tonight.

More news from my Stitch in Time group Tuesday night. One of my fellow quilters showered me with goodies, including this doll.

I have taken about 14 hundredpictures of this doll (seriously) but she is so bright that she always has a glare. I even tried scanning her, but then she REALLYlooked weird. Anyway isn’t this a cute doll? I do not know what I did that was so deserving of all these gift, but I’m loving it!

Quilter Friend also gave me this great Block of the Month series! I’m so excited. Each of these blocks can be finished individually or sewn together in one quilt, and each pattern comes with the full Nursery Rhyme.

Humpty Dumpty is the February block, the next Mad Quilters BOM starts in July, and I think this would make a great quilt or wall hanging and you can pick and choose which blocks you want to use. This pattern is designed by Sarah Sporrer and it is all hand appliqués and embellishment. It’s “rough” appliqué, which means you don’t turn the edges under, you straight stitch around the design creating a more rustic look.

It is always nice to have these things planned out ahead of time, although it may be a challenge for the Mad Quilters, as many of us haven't done much applique. We'll see how it goes.

Here are the rest of the rhymes for the months.
January-Northwind doth blow
February-Humpty Dumpty
March- Baa baa Black sheep
April-Rain Rain Go Away
May -Mary Contrary
June-Hickety Pickety my Black Hen
July-Yankee Doodle
August-Bobby Shafto's gone to Sea
September-Peter Pumpkin Eater
October-Hickory Dickory Dock
November-Blackbirds Pie
December-Christmas is coming (the goose is getting fat!)

This just in.....

2005-03-30T10:51:00.000-08:00

This just in, right as I finished this post. Mr. Moo threw up SPECTACULARLY all over. After a call to the pediatrician I've got him bathed, drinking apple juice and you guesseder chester, watching baby Einstein. poor little guy.

Frac keeps watch
*****Original Post****

Mr. Moo and I slept in until 8:15 this morning, our whirlwind of activity over the past few days finally caught up with us. It was everything I thought it could be.

The woodstove is fixed, we have heat again. Life is good.

Speaking of good, Quilt group last night was Great! The Stitch in Time group have been together for about twenty years and they are hilarious. Last night’s project was ‘self portraits’. We were told to bring five contrasting fabrics and scissors to cut fusible with (you don’t want to get that stuff on your good scissors).

We started out by drawing a self portrait on paper, and then we traced it on to fiv different pieces of fusible. There was quite a bit of moaning about this part, because as I pointed out, I am traditional quilter because you use squares and triangles and I can’t draw. As the leader pointed it out “we’re thinking outside the box” . I am always amazed how different people are, and at how I never have my camera with me when I need it. The self portraits were amazing, creative and beautiful. I wish I had more than mine to show you.

The next step was to iron the fusible to the fabric, then you cut out each piece, hair, neck, face, background, shoulders. Then you moved them around so that you had one of each color together in a square.

Very Andy Warhol. But very easy. In fact several of us thought it would be a good kid project. This is what mine looked like in about an hour, the idea is to go home and embellish them with faces and satin stitch around the edges to keep the fusible in place.

Since we each made five, and four is a logical wall hanging. I suggested that we all put our extra self portrait together in a Stitch in Time Quilt “guess who” quilt to display at our local guilds Quilt Show that is held every two years. The group thought it was a great idea, and guess who is in charge…yeah, can’t keep my mouth shut ever…can I?

Lots more news from Stitch in Time group, but I've got puke to clean up, so it will have to wait.

Aha! Not the band

2005-03-29T17:45:00.000-08:00

So it's 5:45 West Coast time and I am finally able to post to my own blog today, although I'm still unable to post comments elsewhere, include Sallad's blog which she wondered about today, since she doesn't even use Blogger. Apparently Blogger just hates me. I am soooo moving to Wordpress. This week. So be prepared.

School last night, wiped me out, woke up at 5:30 to walk three miles with Lady J who hurt her knee last Friday running the lake and is taking it slow this week. I’m dreading my eleven miler on Sunday (school this weekend Friday and Saturday *bleck*) with no running partners in sight.

We in the Northwest experienced Rain with Sunburst today. A truly Pacific Northwest phenomenon that I’ll attempt to define for you. Rain (pelting, sideways, drenching downpour) with Sunbursts, (random moments of brilliance that brings with it the glare that migraines are made of) .

This is especially nice when you are driving on the freeway. Es-Special-aly. Nice.

I’ve had a rough day. I think the Sunbursts did me in. It started out innocently enough with a Mr. Moo play date (because that kid needs some socialization his only friend is a dog and an eleven year old witch (the neighbors…oh how they talk!)) Then off to the airport to pick up Grandma and Grandpa, fresh from their sojourn to Spain, and full of Gaudi talk.

Unfortunately no one told me it would take over an hour for them to get from their plane, through customs to the arrival gate at PDX. Uh, yeah. I don’t leave the country much. So I had one very cranky baby during naptime in an airport terminal when I realized it was Pixie Potter day, and she would be arriving at my house in less than three minutes and I was over 45 minutes away.

Luckily resilient Pixie went to the neighbors, and when I called was industriously “digging a hole to China”. So alls well that ends well. And I was happy because I didn’t have to call her mom “uh, yeah I lost your child….gee, I’m sorry. Chocolate?”

And yeah I have quilting tonight…If I can just stay awake.

Bad Blog Daze

2005-03-28T11:50:00.000-08:00

Zoey, I wish I had your email, because I could email you then….since Blogger is choosing to be grumpy and not allow us to comment on each other’s blogs.

Okay so I had five.

2005-03-28T11:19:00.000-08:00

Which is the number of miles I was supposed to run today, but not the actual number (3.5) These are my new favorite peeps. Not only do they taste a little like chocolate, they are super fresh. Maybe we should pack more things in chocolate to keep them fresh. Maybe I have found my niche! My idea! The one that will make me millions! Chocolate sandwich bags, Chocolate Tupperware! It could work. Maybe. In the artic.

Minor catastrophe at our house. Upon arriving home from our multi-dog walk I found that the house was full of smoke. “Yahoo!” I thought to myself “our house in on fire! We can rebuild! (if I’m quoted in a legal document than I never said that!)” But no such luck. Our house was not on fire.

Upon further inspection I found that instead our woodstove’s stovepipe was leaking …smoke. This is nice because the Woodstove is the only source of heat we have, and it is WET WET WET here, rain predicted for the rest of the week. And it is cold.

Great! I love a challenge bring it on! So, I called Woodstove Installers of choice, and surmised the situation was a) something is in the stovepipe *ewwwww* or b) we burned wet wood and there is a creosote build up. I did not suggest c) you guys installed it wrong. Because it is cold, and the woodstove is cooling down, and I’m not sure that the warm smokyhouse is worth it, oh, and I want them to get out here and fix it!

Plus secretly I’m petrified that Mr. Moo will die of smoke inhalation in his crib. I yi yi yi! (in fact I’m just going to take this opportunity to run upstairs and make sure he is breathing…and maybe open a window~okay I’m back, he’s fine. His little nose is pushed into his bumper so that if he suffocates it is his fault not mine! *phew* JUST KIDDING! I opened a window just in case). So the Woodstove Installers of choice can come out tomorrow, if it's not raining.

I guess I’ll just put extra clothes on Mr. Moo and we’ll rough it. And if that gets bad, we can always go to Grandma’s.

Of course we have a metal roof. Which is three stories off the ground. So no one every wants to come fix our roof or do anything that involves being on our roof (like cleaning out the stovepipe) because wet, metal roof seems synonymous with really, fast, fall to certain death. So The Man and I are thinking, next roof, metal? Not so much.

Did I mention that it was raining, supposed to rain all week. And it is chilly. And our Woodstove is broken. Yeah. Woohoo.

I’m going to go drown my misery in working on my Month of Softies entry. Why bother you say? Because I STILL HAVE THREE DAYS DAG NABBIT! THAT’S WHY!!

Let’s end on a positive note though. Today I am wearing jeans I haven’t been able to sit down in (because yes I’ve pulled them over my rear just so I could say I could get into them, and snap them) since before Mr. Moo’s arrival. Ahhhhh.

And the sun just came out.....

I soooooo did not have peeps for breakfast this morning....Really.

2005-03-28T08:00:00.000-08:00

Training log, week of:March 21st-27th
Monday - five miles
Tuesday- sick
Wednesday -sick
Thursday-sick
Friday -lazy
Saturday-eight miles
Sunday -stretch and strength

total mileage 14miles

Three powers of Nature. Rain. Wind. Mel.

2005-03-26T12:57:00.000-08:00

When I awoke this morning the rain was so loud on the tin roof that I thought we must be in the path of an oncoming freighter. When I looked out the windows I wondered how the rain could make that much noise since it was raining sideways and the great Northwest Pines, were bowing so low they look like they were trying to dust off their feet. And I thought to myself "self, nine miles this morning, I don't think so".

So I had some breakfast and a soda and took the advice of the Rains Gods and quilted instead. Around noon the weather had calmed down to a constant drizzle, minus the wind and the runner in me, got the better of the quilter. I arranged for Ama and Poppa to watch the little shnooker for me. Because the mother in me outvoted the runner on taking the tyke on a cold, wet nine miler.

The Weather gods were cruel and around the seven mile mark I was running in concrete boots and I was beat. Lucky for me Ama and Poppa came looking for me, (I had estimated my nine miler to take me 1:45ish, since my eight miler took me 1:32 do you think it was the soda?) and I jumped in the truck because I was done. Done, Done, put a fork in me done.

Only eight miles and in 1:37 (five minutes longer than last 8 miler) I couldn't get below eleven minute miles and around mile five I slumped into 13 minute miles. I have to admit though that some recent posts kept me going, include this one from Diana.

So I'd like to give a big shout out to my Running Blog Family. You rock. And in reality I'm pretty happy with today because I haven't run since Monday. Only two weeks till the Whidbye Half!

Today's run made me think of a very rainy day in Hawaii a few years back and very wet wait at the bus stop.
Here is a picture of Mad Quilter Mel. (on the left, I'm in the middle, nice huh?)It is my most favorite picture of mel (that can be posted on the internet). Here we are on a bus in Hawaii (1/03) with a very strange man. He liked us because we were singing show tunes. Well, I was singing show tunes, mostly to keep from having to talk to him or give him money. This bus ride went on and on and on. Their was a lot of singing. It was a very. Long. Ride.

Look how supportive Mel is of this plan! Uh. Yeah.

Mel lives in Chicago, it is very sad because we miss her very much at our quilting bees, and when I say we, I mean my sister misses her very much. She was always there to keep me in line. SOME BODY HAS TOO! I’ve been know to demote my sister to baking cookies because her stitches were crooked or dump her underwear out in the foyer to help her repack it RIGHT! Okay, these maybe extreme instances but it is important to give Mel full credit as someone who can tactfully re-direct me into the proper place. “Brit, back away from the suitcase”

Some days, I could really use Mel. And I miss her all days.

Popcorn isn't a food group?

2005-03-24T20:41:00.000-08:00

Lazy Daze --this mini vacation from running is really nice. I've been sleeping in until 7:30 (unheard of on training days) The baby is going down around 7:30-8pm and sleeping all night. We are a well rested bunch here! Maybe too well rested. I think I better get out and run today, I'm thinking four miler, although my throat is still scratchy, but we have to do something befoe jumping into a nine miler this weekend!

So with The Man ~~out of the picture~~ away there is a dilemma. What to eat. His parents are away too, so they won’t feed me. I have a confession: I can’t cook (shhhhhh!) Okay, I can cook, I just don’t like too. Well it’s not that I don’t like too. But it scares me. The man always says that left to my own devices I would just eat popcorn and bread.

Okay that may be true.

The daily phone call or email home from The Man entitled “what’s for dinner” has been known to send me into a tailspin. What does he mean? Does he mean “why can’ t you be more like my mom (or dad) and cook dinner for me? “ does he mean “*sigh* have you even thought about what we are eating for dinner or do I have to subsist on beer and cheerios, AGAIN?” or does he mean “Should I even bother asking or should I just go to the drive through on my way home.” Usually of course he means, “what’s for dinner?”.

He (and his mom) are pretty good with the subtle hints though ( I think I’ve gotten a cook book for every single holiday for the last seven years. Some of which I’ve opened. (that’s how I know who they’re from, my mother-in-law always writes endearing messages in the front of every book she gives, she’s a librarian…what can you do?) But I digress, Again…..weird.

Last night, as I sat looking at Mr. Moo realizing that we could not eat popcorn for the next four nights, I had an epiphany…I would cook! And I would not be afraid! And I would probably feel pretty good about it.

So I made chicken ala king on freshly baked bread (I can do somethings without fear)for me, and oatmeal for The Buddy. He ate all of his oatmeal and half of my chicken ala king. It was amazing. It was fantastic. It was. Dinner.

Too bad The Man missed it. It could happen again. Probably.

Because.....Hey! I'm hot.

2005-03-24T11:45:00.000-08:00

So my Mail carrier just honked at me. Not in that "hey sexxxxxyy laaaady way either. (which would have been totally inappropriate, but I would have understood..because Hey, I'm hot.)

But rather in that, I'm fat, and lazy and you have more than two (it's actually 23) steps in front of your house and if you want your package you better come down and get it, way.

What happen to the hot, mail carriers that walk around town and are in shape and have a waist? Those guys can go ahead and honk at me....cuz you know. I'm hot.

Raise your hand if you think my mail carrier may suck. Just a little.

And yes, I went down (and back up) the 23 steps to retrieve Mr. Moo's Easter gift from Uncle Frito. Because a Moo Mom had got to do, for her little Moo.

p.s. I am not a cow. I'm hot!

Dog Gone

2005-03-24T07:07:00.000-08:00

So why am I not in Seattle? Because last night in our flurry to pack we suddenly remembered the three dogs, four cats, multiple dustbunnies, and various fish that we are responsible for. Uh, yeah. We can’t both leave for four days without someone to feed the animals. (DOH!)

So I’m still home, which is fine, because frankly last night all I wanted to do was cry and watch movies in bed. Which worked out because that was all Mr. Moo wanted to do to. We were both in bed by 8pm and were probably asleep soon after. I woke up around 7am to a baby serenade, *warble warble warble*. And believe it or not I feel 80% cured! And by the screaming and the clear colored snot (green snot bad/clear snot better) that is now leaking from the baby’s nose he feels better too.

And, Look what I finished yesterday! The top of the Polarbear quilt, and with only two weeks to quilt it. It could totally happen. Really.

I struggled deciding whether or not to put another border on this quilt. I’m not super happy with how it turned out but I am super happy that it is done. The interesting thing about project I think is that sometimes you have it in your mind how they are going to look and they just don’t turn out that way. This is one of those, but I’m happy because today while Mr. Moo is napping (please, Great Quilting Diety, let him take another three hour nap today) I will be quilting.

Although after that great gift box from Sunni yesterday I have a million ideas floating around in my head, including my Month of Softies entry, (hello end of the month again! How does that happen?)

Okay off to feed the Menagerie. Happy snot free, head clear day!

The Easter Bunny cometh!

2005-03-23T15:07:00.000-08:00

I know it will come as a shock to many of you (not) but I haven't mailed my Easter Cards yet. *hangs head in shame* It's true. All those relatives who haven't gotten birthday gift thank yous yet, aren't getting Easter Cards on time either. Uh, yeah. Bad Mommy Award...I know, I know

But when we took Daddy his lunch today we stopped by the post office and look what the post office brought us from Sunni!

This box of delectable goodies and a cute basket and Yahoo a felt bunny! Hurray for felt bunnies! Doesn’t Sunni do marvelous work? Not pictured here is the coconut chocolate egg I inhaled (every cold needs some chocolate) moments after opening the box. Sunni also sent me some very crafty notecards, perfect for aforementioned thank you notes yet to be written! Good thinking, now I'm inspired to sit down and get some of those thank yous done!

And finally this little guy, who I didn’t notice as first (see in the original picture he is tucked on the ~~left hand side there~~ yeah, duh Brittany, I just reread this post...I mean the right hand side *rolls eyes at self*).

It’s a Giraffe! Thanks Sunni!

Ps. SweetPea says she's got pictures.

2005-03-22T19:30:00.000-08:00

No mileage today. I'm soooo foggy, my throat hurts and now my ear is plugged. If I feel better tomorrow I'll get up an run, in the meantime I'm gonna do pilates and eat chicken noodle soup! Hurray for The Man!

We are headed to Seattle for Easter weekend, which means I get to try out some new runs. I think I'll run here, because I can get some serious mileage in,(not 25 miles, that would be excessive) and this weekend's long run is nine miles....cold. cold. go away.....

I have to say that I have been seriously J-E-A-L-O-U-S of Keith, ever since he got his forerunner. It's one thing for the RBF peeps to have them, but for someone you know to get one, is just PAIN! What a joy to just run...any direction and get the correct mileage...because I totally suck at math, especially while running.

Here is a picture of my partner in crime helping me decide what clothes of his to pack for the weekend. Apparently he is going with all of them. At least all his shirts.

We already packed our bathing suits because I finallyremembered that there is a pool at Aunt Lauren's and we have TWO WHOLE days to spend there while she isn't home and so swimming it is!

Well, that and quilting, I'm cruizing on the Polar Bear Quilt and hope to have the top pieced by the time we leave tomorrow.

And finally in quilting news, here is a picture (of a picture, because the scanner's USB is malfunctioning great!) for Nadine, because I want her to knit me a pair of converse booties, (for my kid of course) because He loves booties (the feet kind). He likes to talk to them and carry them around in his mouth (yes I'm beginning to worry that he needs to socialize with people besides the dog.) So, here Nadine is a picture of the design that The Man told you about, it does kind of look like baseballs. It is hard, and difficult, and down right NOT EASY. This picture was taken before the rows were sewn together, and it was taken mostly so we didn't get confused on where the rows went.

I knew nothing about this pattern when a friend asked me to help her. I was like "sure!! I love quilting". Believe it or not this was a beginning class she had taken! It was a frustrating experience, so frustrating in fact that I don't have any finished pictures of the quilt. But looking back at the picture it does look cool. This pattern is also called axeheads, sometimes.

Anyway come over and we'll walk you through it (that was the royal we...I'm sick, and I feel woozy, that is different than wonky but I believe they are first cousins.

Besides I want to learn how to make those flannel rag quilts ...so we can trade.

Sore Throat Update

2005-03-22T13:29:00.000-08:00

Well, Mr. Moo is down for the count, and the sore throat I woke up with, is now a big ball of cotton in the back of my throat. Which leads me to believe that I wasn't fakin this morning when I bagged my run. Lady J suggested Chicken Noodle soup and much to my belly aching delight I found some of the The Man's frozen chicken noodle in the fridge. I LOVE THE MAN, AND HIS CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP.

Now to relax in front of the woodstove, with soup and watch Gosford Park. I've watched it twice, only halfway through. Mr Moo's vocalizations make it difficult to hear. Somewhat. I'm off to find out who dunnit.

Sweat Pea

2005-03-22T10:29:00.000-08:00

My friend, SweetPea (not her real name) and I have an ongoing competition. It's called the "My in-laws are better than your in-laws" competition. It can get pretty hairy at times. Both set of grandparents provide unending babysitting, since both SweetPea and her Man and The man and I are in school. That is reallyimportant when you are stay at home mom, Grandparents who want to visit a lot! Because that means you might get to go to the bathroom BY YOUR SELF! at some point during the day. Like when grandpa comes by to take Mr. Moo for a walk.

Privacy in the potty. How novel.

So SweetPea and I go on about how much we adore our in-laws. Like the time that SweetPea and her husband decided, on a whim, to sell their house, and put a sign in their yard at 8am, and the house was sold by 2pm and they had to be out in a week, and her in-laws said, "of course you can live with us". Or like the time my in laws picked me up from work and took me out to dinner on their anniversery because someone had stolen my car.

Speaking of cars...

Apparently yesterday, Sweetpea borrowed her father in law's pick up to run a few errands, including driving out of town to the dump. She returned home to her ~~hole in the ground~~ I mean house they are building with her two year old asleep in the cab. Her father and her spoke briefly about some construction zone stuff, and then the electrician emerged from the house.

Sweetpea called to him "did we pass our electrical inspection?"
and he replied "I think your truck is on fire."

Sweetpea turned and in horror saw that her father in law's truck was smoking. She rushed the cab to retrieve her daughter, while her father ran around the other side to get her diaperbag and purse, but the door had already melted shut!

The electrician dialed 911.

On the phone this morning she says to me "I swear, not fifteen seconds later flames started licking the bottom of the truck". Clutching her baby to her, she and the growing crowd of onlookers backed away from the truck.

And then.

It. Exploded. The truck. Exploded. OH, Yeah.

At this point SweetPea called her father in law, and her husband. They arrived home at about the same time the TWO SHINY RED firetrucks did.

Apparently their is nothing but a car skeleton and a very charred road where the truck once stood.

SweetPea's husband wondered out loud to his father if this were "grounds for eviction" but instead SweetPea's in laws took her out to dinner. After all, she was distraught after single handedly TORCHING their car!

And though I don't think I've ever actually destroyed anything of my in-laws, I think this was a hands down victory in the "My in-laws are better than your in-laws" competition.

Today. I admit defeat.

Upon Request...

2005-03-21T20:43:00.000-08:00

Well not really, upon request, but it is fun to say that. Dorothee and I are having problems communicating but a few of our emails seem to be getting through. She asked if I had posted a picture of my Tee shirt quilt. So here it is.

The Not-so-amazing T-shirt quilt and the not so amazing Photoshop job to keep some secrets between friends. The secrets we can't keep of course are the pictures of Michael Jackson! and the many unicorn t-shirts. Keep in mind most of these t-shirts are from 1980's, looking at the date I'm amazed, I made this quilt in 1991, I've been quilting for over ten years. Wow!

One thing I've learned since making this quilt was the benefit of using starch. It makes using interestingfabrics much easier. Especially when you are a garage sale fabric shopper.

Woke up with a sore throat this morning and didn't make my morning run, but Mr. Moo was up at the crack of dawn anyway, so we partied the morning away. My throat is still sore...

Daddy had school last night, so Mr. Moo and I had popcorn for dinner. He loved it! Dancing and clapping while I popped the corn on the stove and they he snarfed the popped kernels right down. I didn't have the heart to tell him that Mama's popcorn wasn't nearly as good as Grandpa's. We he gets back we will have to study the fine art of Grandpa's perfectly buttered popcorn.

Yummmm.

And in the morning...I'm making WAFFLES!

2005-03-21T08:36:00.000-08:00

Training log, week of: March 14-20
Monday - 4.5miles
Tuesday- 3.5 miles (with stroller)
Wednesday -strength and stretch (pilates video)
Thursday- 3.5 miles (with stroller)
Friday -rest
Saturday-stretch and strength
Sunday -3 ish

miles total=15ish

Today's five miler started out on the grumpy side, I was late getting to the meeting point because someone (who will remain nameless) refused to bend his knees during his diaper change, making said change almost impossible. He just kept looking at me, like " you've got to be kidding me! I'm not up yet!"

In the end we did make it to the lake, and parked behind the Queen's truck, we met up with her and her dog Max at the halfway point (we had run opposite directions) and were able to run the rest of the lake with her.

Tomorrow is a three mile run or cross training, I've been seriously thinking about getting out my bike and dusting it off, but I'm not brave enought to try it yet with Mr. Moo. It would add a little variation to my workouts, it is hard to find baby friendly workouts.

And then I had yummy froze waffles for breakfast, played with the dogs and put the baby down for a nap. Did I mention I like this routine, it works nicely for me.

My favorite thing about being a west coast blogger (thas riiight dawg) is that by the time I sign on, my blogging compadres have usually already blogged at least once. Which is nice. I'm always behind in comments but I like knowing there is something new waiting out there on the blogosphere for me.

Rain, Rain, go away....

2005-03-20T16:12:00.000-08:00

at least until I take Mr. Moo's Easter pictures, how am I supposed to dress him up in cute springy clothes if the ground is sopping wet and the daffodils are drippy?

This morning I was supposed to run 6.2 miles, I didn't. I'm not sure how many I ran but it was more than three. I do know that I ate WAY TOO MANY oreos and cadburry eggs at quilting and I felt physically ill as I strapped Mr. Moo back into the carseat to head home. I've been medicating myself with water today, trying to rinse the system...Seriously, it's way worse than a hangover...I'm pretty sure.

On the postive side, it wasn't my worst run ever and it snapped me out of my grumpy sugar coma, and The Man appreciated that for sure!

Met up with Ren, Natalia'n'Keith for Mad Quilters this weekend. I don't want to ruin Keith's reputation at all by implying that he was quilting...no no...he was playing on his new laptop, and Mr. Moo was helping him, isn't that cute!

"Look Keith! push this and your character has neverending gombstopper chompers! I play with my dad all the time! No, really, push it."
I pieced nine patches for my polar bear quilt/UFO my goals is to finish piecing that this week since I will be seeing it's soon to be owner on April 10th at the Half I'm running then. She doesn't turn one till later on in that month so I'm hoping to beat the birthday by a few weeks. Yeah I know! I'm a slacker.

Here are Natalia's Blocks of the Month for the last year, minus March's block, since she only got it yesterday, she was working on it though when I (clutching my over sugared stomach) left. I really like the color choices here, and look, Natalia's turtle is the same size as her other blocks, she apparently paid attention in Math class! I know you've heard it before, but I LOVE seeing everyone's blocks, it is so inspiring!

The final shot for the day is of Keith and Mr. Moo, they took the dogs for a walk and the weather got them, keith improvised with bandanas around Mr. Moo's hands followed by doggie bags handy and he even sacrificed his hat for the occasion.

This guy is ready for fatherhood! Only 16 more weeks till his own papoose arrives!

March BOM

2005-03-18T15:48:00.000-08:00

Yahoo a Rest Day...Resting: Check.

I lied to you all! Kill me quickly. I stated in this post, Monday that I hadn't done any stars in the BOM until this month, but when I took all my BOM's for this rotation out to look at them, I found that I had in fact done and Antique Star, in September *hangs head in shame*.

This pattern is called Sarah's Choice, but I think it should be the offical Mad Quilter's Star. Ever since I posted on the history of the Mad Quilters, I've been reminiscent for this pattern, so I decided to go ahead and piece it.

The points are a little wonky on this star, but I don't let minor things like Wonkiness slow me down.

I scanned this block to try for a different look, one of the things about my camera that drives me crazy is that it is hard to get close up details. Scanning took care of that however...Look,how close!

Denim Theme Week: Day Five
Denim Mountains
For our final denim quilt of the week, (oh yes I have more, I can do an annual denim week at least a second annual Denim week)we have a quilt designed by The Man for his cousin. The Man wanted a mountain/lake scene (somewhat represented here) I added the tree and star border to the pattern and ouila! (see those pesky stars again..I love em)

Thank you for stopping by for Theme Week, hopefully next weeks' theme will be original crafting by me we can always dream. As for now, I'm off to pack and head to Seattle for my monthly Mad Quilters fix!

Ta Ta!

There comes a time in every Half Marathoners training when Fruity Pebbles are required

2005-03-17T08:48:00.000-08:00

That time is now. I'm pooped.

and don't forget they're magically delicious (not really, I just through that in for St. Patty's day...they do have green though, I think.

It was drizzly and windy yesterday, not usually unusal for the Pacific Northwest but definately unusual for the weather we've been having. It was not good make-up run weather, especially not with a running stroller. So I opted to run this morning. And so did Mr. Moo.

He was up again at 5am ready to run....or so I determined. I only ran 3.5 because I was just dying pushing the stroller this morning and it shows in my time 46:00 instead of the 42:00 it took me tuesday (also pushing the stroller).

Oh well I ran! Tomorrow is a rest day and I'm milking it for all it's worth. Mr. Moo and I are headed to Seattle to sleep over with Aunt Ren and to prepare for Quilting on Saturday.

Also on our agenda our Easter pics. Aunt Ren takes EXCELLENT photos, although I'm not sure if we will be able to out cute, last year.

I'm actually really enjoying the baby getting up early and running with me, since once we get home we both get cleaned up shower/bath respectively, have breakfast and then he goes down for his first nap by 7:30 or 8:00 which gives me a great start to my morning. Usually his naps are from 9-11 which leaves us litte time to run errands between our heavy social calender (lunch dates with daddy) and our afternoon nap. This way he is up by 9:30 or 10:00 leaving us a good two hours to run to the store.

Denim Theme Week: Day Four
This Round the World pattern was a quilt my Relay for Life team pieced for a drawing to raise money for the American Cancer Society. I love this simple pattern and there are so many variations that you can do with it, I really like the all blue look here. This top was pieced in seven hours.

Be impressed. Be very impressed. I had four dedicated women helping me, none of whom had ever quilted before. This quilt did so well that the team voted to make Quilts to raise money the next three years I was captain.

Cadburry Eggs

2005-03-16T13:50:00.000-08:00

There have been alot of cadburry egg posts today. Which of course made me crave Cadburry Eggs which I LOVE with a love that lasts forever.

Of course I have no Eggs in the house, because I ATE THEM ALL.

So I went to my secret chocolate stash to find something chocolate. And I discovered....that IT IS ALL GONE!!! Someone has been eating my chocolate stash!

I wonder if it was me.

Baby Bear Claw

2005-03-16T08:05:00.000-08:00

Missed my morning run this morning, I awoke at 7:00am, two hours and ten minutes later than my alarm went off. So a make up five miler is in my future today! Apparently I can't get up at 5am three mornings in a row, maybe I should try napping, afterall it works for mister Moo.

Denim Theme Week: Day Three
Here is a little quilt I whipped out for a friends baby. Notice I used the words whipped out because I usually I say "I started this quilt three years ago". That is the joy of combining tying and baby in the same quilt. Quick and Slick.

This quilt was completed in 1999. Kate asked if I garage saled for denim, but the sad truth is once I started making denim quilts people just began giving me denim, I currently have two tubs of denim all waiting patiently to be used in this quilt. Which I swear will be done soon!

My favorite denim to work with is little girls jeans, because they are so darn cute! I've worked with a girl scout troup for a few years helping them piece and tie quilts, and they bordered one of their quilts with little girl jeans, SO ADORABLE!

My one-year-old started walking yesterday! One day, no walking, the next day walking! How crazy! He is so cute I can't stand it! I did make him cry this morning though, so the morning isn't a total loss.

I stood him up to practice pushing his activity cart and he headed STRAIGHT. FOR. THE. STAIRS. I took about three giant steps towards him (our house, not so big) yelling NO! NO! NO! at him. He turned around to see me advancing and drop to his knees crying just as his cart dipped, two steps, down into the den. But he stopped. My work here is done.

Note to Self

2005-03-15T17:41:00.000-08:00

Note to Self:

The time to learn new things, like Pilates on tape, is not when your one-year old is awake.

Laying on your back gives him the perfect oppurtunity to

*put things in your eyes (like his fingers)
*put things in your mouth (ditto)
*pull up your shirt "hmm get cracking mama, this ain't no washboard!"
*sit on your stomach
*investigate your belly button
*lay his head on your face
*pull on your braid
and while you are achieving the 'rolling the ball' lay down behind you so he gets squashed as you rock back.

so much for strength conditioning today.

Denim Ohio Star Quilt

2005-03-15T08:16:00.000-08:00

Completed my 3.5 today per week nine of Higdon's novice training plan. Poor Jonah, I had planned on taking him with me, but Mr. Moo was up at 4:30 so he came instead. A black dog and a baby stroller in the dark is just one too many safety hazards. I finished in 42 minutes which is good considering the baby stroller takes at least a minute (sometimes more depending on hills) off my miles, and I had to stop to pick up a tossed sippy cup several times. Also my toe blister popped (disgust-o) while I was running so now I really am going to have to steal Marisa's blog title!

Jonah the Dog's Log:
no balls
no run
sad doggie.

In Quilting news it is Block of the Month day, but I haven't finished my Block yet, so hopefully pictures later. In the meantime, continuing with Denim Quilt Theme week this is the second quilt I made out of denim, it was for my cousin (seen at top, No! he really isn't that tall, he is standing at the top of stairs, hanging the quilt, although he is 6'3, I don't mess around with little quilts *grin*) when he graduated from highschool.

I had actually taken a quilting class by the time I made this denim quilt. Notice the Ohio star center, and the sawtooth stars in the corners. I have a star problem, I love stars, pieced stars, applique stars, stars on fabric...I've actually consciously not pieced any BOM stars for the last two BOM rotations. Until today. Today's is a star, but more about that later.

Working in denim can be difficult, but rewarding and it's great for guys! Pamalamadingdong is working on a denim quilt and I can't wait to see it! Speaking of other bloggers. Sarah has posted some great pics, although we are all bummed that she has to keep her wedding quilt a secret from the receipients so none of us get to see pics either. *so sad*

Well Mr. Moo and I have a whirlwind social calender today, with a playdate and hopefully a Pixie sighting allthough word on the street is that she has a temp!

Paper writing vs. Blogging

2005-03-14T20:17:00.000-08:00

It is hard to go from Bloggin (hyperlinks, italics, pictures) to boring old paper writing. As I finish up my paper I find myself wanting to link to this cool site to better emphasize my point. I want to insert a picture to snaz the whole thing up. No such luck. Boring old paper. But at least I get to email it! So that is kinda fun -ish.

Denim Themes

2005-03-14T09:34:00.000-08:00

I ran my 4.5 miles today, I ran out of time for the last half mile (my ride got there early) but I felt confident that I could have completed the run, that counts right?

I'm having a theme week, because I have softies, and March's BOM to make this week as well as piece a top for our Mad Quilter's meeting this weekend, (Yeah! It feels like forever since I've quilted) get the Mad Quilter's monthly out, and oh yeah write a paper today, and tomorrow. I LOVE finals!

Themes make life easier for everyone, this weeks theme DENIM QUILTS! Here we see the first denimn quilt I made, for sister Ren. It started innocently enough, I really like the doile in the center so I fastened it to a hexagon of denim. Then I cut out hexagons from my grandmother's wedding dress. A theme I carried over to the velvet twilight quilt I made for my other sister.

DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. This was my first conscious endeavor into quilting, and it was hard! I hand sewed most of the hexagons because I just couldn't figure out a technique for the sewing machine that wasn't start/stop start/stop start/stop.

Ultimately the wedding dress silk did not hold up to the heavier denim well, and was later replaced with other denim about 4 years later. However it may have lasted longer if my sister didn't let her cats sleep on the quilt because they damanged the silk beyond normal wear and tear.

Once you give away a quilt though you have to let it all go, AND I'M SO GOOD AT THAT!

One last thing before I start (ack!) my paper. For those quilters pursuing this blog, here is another excellent quilter' blog. Zoey's Perennial Passion. I'm excited because I keep finding new ones! If you are lurking around this blog you should DE LURK because I love visiting new blogs!

I’m a dumb dumb.

2005-03-13T19:12:00.000-08:00

It’s true. But I have renewed respect for walking, and walking as exercise. I know walking is great exercise, but I realized Saturday just how hard it could be and how much different it is from running.

This weekend we had marathon class, and at Lady J and I had decided we were going to walk at lunch. We joined some other classmates and ended up walking 4.5 miles. All I can say is….Athena! I salute you.

I am SO sore. My hip flexors especially, and my feet are crampy, not to mention the little toe sized blister I had on my little toe. Boy, am I dumb, I though a four mile walk would be cake! I mean I ran 8 miles on Thursday! Come on!

Dumb. Even dumber that I’m training for a half marathon and I have a blister on my toe. Tomorrow's five miler is gonna ROCK!

Ding Dong.

Training Log for this week March 7-13 2005
Monday - 4.0mile run
Tuesday- stretching
Wednesday -2mile run
Thursday- 8 mile run 1:32:29/ 2 mile walk
Friday -Rest day
Saturday-4.5 mile walk
Sunday -stretch

Pooh bear and a Post about other bloggers

2005-03-11T11:13:00.000-08:00

I love my laptop: Let me count the ways. I love my laptop because I can sit outside in the sun and blog..I mean do my homework, I can sit on the bed and ~~blog~~ do my homework where Mr. Moo can’t reach me. I can move easily from room to room following the Mobile One and his ever present need to be Somewhere else! RIGHT. NOW. All the while ~~checking blogs~~ finishing up homework that is due tonight!

And of course I love THE MAN because he bought me the laptop, and the laptop carrying case.

In my ongoing attempt to keep my quilting gene alive, here is another quilt I’ve done in the past. This was made for Mr. Moo’s cousin, Pooh Bear.

This quilt was finished in May of 2003, picture taken July 2003

I love quilts! I love the way they can have hidden meanings, (children’s clothes, patterns made up between friends) the way the same patterns can look different depending on contrasts and colors.

For instance, Pooh bears mother (and her sister, my mother-in-law) are very into Winnie the Pooh so I chose Pooh fabric for this quilt. Now the quilt pattern (for you non-quilters, stop by anytime!!) I used here is Bear's Paw. I love doing stuff like that. It's like a secret code.

I’ve been stressing this week trying to get papers done, even though I just realized I’ll have all weekend in class to finish up papers (kids don’t try this at home! ) because I’m such a good student and always pay attention in class! Due to the fact that I can’t access internet in the classrooms. (Dang! someone there was thinking!)

Anyway, I was stressing, and haven’t kept on top of updating my template and the blogs I’ve been reading.

Here are just a few:

Quilt-o-mania: Another crafter who has two blogs! One knitting one quilting, great designs!

Thimble: I just love her and today’s post is a tutorial on making cute little icons next to your blog name

All sorts: Art and Crafts, is like being at camp all the time, Jenny has beautiful pictures and a kid's heart

Forget-me-not quilts: A stay a home mom of identical twins and a son who is 17 mths older than them HELLO! and she has time to quilt? I love her style, after my own heart!

And I don’t want to forget my Running Blog Family, always an inspiration.

Black Toes: Christian always has interesting links, especially to wife Brynne’s blogs (tri-mommy and knitlet) and baby pics….we love baby pics!

Dawn on the Run: She is an inspiration to runners and bloggers everywhere with her blogging serenity prayer.

And Mid-pack Mom: talking about balance, exercising for life and what it is all about.

And special thanks to the Zoot for teaching me how to ~~slash out~~ words. Happy Heartbeats Zoot!

Isn't it amazing how long your post can get when you supposed to be writing a paper?

8 miles and an old quilt

2005-03-10T08:53:00.000-08:00

This is a quilt that I made for my sister in 2001 called Velvet Twilight (I finished a lot of quilts that year, although few of them were started that year) entirely out of velvet. Uh yeah, it was hard! I finally ended up hand piecing most of it because it was just to crazy to deal with on the sewing machine.

The cream colored center that you can't see very well is a piece of my grandmother's wedding dress, I quilted hearts on this part of the quilt and then crosshatched everything else.

All I have to do is finish two more papers, attend a weekend class Fri-Sun and a Monday night class and this quarter is over. To quote the blogfather, can I get a HALLELUJAH?

Speaking of running, I ran 8miles this morning. Because of the weekend class, and the commute to aforementioned class, I had to be realistic with myself and realize I would not be getting my long run in this weekend. So I ran two miles yesterday and did some stretching, Friday will be my rest day and Lady J and I will do some cross training (aka hills) during our lunch breaks this weekend.

This morning I ran the regular route, 3.57 with Queen Bee and then Lady J hopped in and ran the second 3.57 with me. I ran the final .89 by myself, and was super happy because I finished. I'm always worried I'll wimp out in the final stretch.

Can I get a round of applause for my running buddies? They rock I'm lucky to have flexible women who will run with me and get me where I'm going.

What a gift.

DON'T PANIC. IT'S JUST THE SUN

2005-03-09T13:17:00.001-08:00

Between the BEE U TI FUL* weather we are having, the homework I'm not doing and this guy..

I'm falling behind in my crafting. I'm busy visiting other quilters to keep motivated, and remember....have I mentioned I have no sewing room? Add that to our to do list. Only one more week of class (all weekend, but you know) and then I'm free...for a week. And then...another year of classes *sigh*.

So back to the work but for now if you haven't read this post on Dooce yet...Do it.

And check out the new Harry Potter Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince cover at Zoot's.

*I'm not really trying to make you jealous (well maybe a little) if you are still having crappy weather, it is just that here in the Pacific NW we have to Carpe Diem when we are having such scrumptious weather, because usually it RAINS ALL THE TIME HERE! We just aren't used to it, and we're giddy.

I passed a billboard the other day that said. "DON'T PANIC! IT'S JUST THE SUN!"

Happy Birthday to Uncle Pat

2005-03-08T14:19:00.000-08:00

It is sooo beautiful today in the Pacific Northwest. I'm taking a break out here on my front porch, in short sleeves, enjoying the scenary.

The Man made the most of the weather this weekend when he was home, tilling up the garden, and planning for the harvest.

Monday I spent the day visiting with my sister, who is here from Philadelphia, and studying for an exam. I put 3.5 miles in on the run calender, and managed to talk Lady J and Queen Bee into splitting an 8 miler with me Thursday. They will each run four miles with me, to help keep me motivated. I have some kick butt running partner for sure!

Today is a strength and stretch day, so its 8 minute abs, and stretches for me.

I find myself doing less and less quilting as the weather gets warmer and warmer, if I could just get something on the frame, I could quilt in the sunshine, while Mr. Moo crawls around eating dirt!

And finally happy belated birthday to my kid brother, who turned 24 yesterday...dang, that is old, especially when you are the baby.

RTD can't keep me down!

2005-03-06T20:08:00.000-08:00

Running stats for week

Monday-3.5miles
Wednesday 3.1 miles
Friday -4miles
Sunday 7miles

Week total:17.6

After a serious look at my fellow RBF posts I've realized that I need to get serious about training and keeping track. So here are my stats for the week.

I am following Higdon's plan, picked up from Marisa's blog, pretty much.. I switched the rest days and the long run days to fit my schedule but I'm getting the miles in.

Lady J and I started out to run 6miles this morning at my request, but after 3 miles I headed home, a victim to RTD. Ever since the baby was born I've suffered from Rubbing Thigh Disease. It may be the twenty pounds I haven't lost yet, ya think? Anyway, not such a problem in the winter when I run in tights but this morning was sunny and I broke out the shorts.

I did not however break out the vaseline. So I headed home after 3 miles, when I arrived home, the baby was asleep the husband was occupied and I felt great, so Jonah, the vaseline and I headed up the road for another four miles.

Now I read in Higdon's plan that you can stop and walk while completing the mileage, so I'm sure that a twenty minute car ride counts as stopping to walk. So I ran three miles than four miles twenty minutes later.

I feel good, other than the RTD. It's sure nice to be running long miles again.

Pixie Potter Age Five

2005-03-05T16:53:00.000-08:00

I was going through some old pictures and found a series of pictures of Pixie Potter taken six years ago (almost seven Yikes!) when I was her Nanny.

I call this one....

"I beg your pardon...."

Cross training

2005-03-05T12:00:00.000-08:00

So does walking* count as crosstraining??

Seriously. I really want to know what you think.

*consider that I'm carrying a 26 pound baby/backpack and throwing the ball for Jonah

Happy Face

2005-03-04T14:17:00.000-08:00

That last post was such a downer! I turned on my computer and saw it and bummed myself out. So don't read the angst post if you don't wanna. Instead put on your happy face.

Here we are, all happy. After a walk.

Mr. Moo is now saying Jonah...which sounds a lot like Do Nah. And is barely distinquishable from his other baby talk other than it only had two syllables.

Doe doe doe doe doe.....Doe doe doe? Doe doe doe.

He also says Fish. Okay. He says Tch. But that doesn't sound anything like Doe....so there you have it.

Still working on Mama, and Dada. But hey, we can identify the animals...

The day after this Wordpress debacle, I'm feeling good, it actually kind of relieves the pressure. I don't really understand the techno babble, and am having a hard time with it, whereas I do understand Blogger, and it is working fine, and I can still access my website....which is what is most important to me, because of the Heart and Sole Run

Speaking of runs, Lady J and I did a 3.5 miles this am, even though we both thought about walking for coffee....Friday is traditionally, walk to Starbucks day with the group we run/walk with. So Yeah us!

Peevish

2005-03-03T20:39:00.000-08:00

Okay, so the Wordpress thing is not going well. Banging my head against the computer each night after Mr. Moo goes to bed does not seem to be working. I've spent the last couple of free minutes strung together (hysterical mama laughter) trying to figure out php and how to change the CSS on the template.....how to actually write on the template and get the changes to stay.

But whatever, I'm no techno geek. However TONIGHT..... I tried to log in to my account from another outside to see why you can't leave comments, because I was starting to despair that WordPress was exactly like Blogger in that you had to have an account on that system to leave a comment.

This mystery is yet unsolved for me, because I CAN'T ACCESS MY WORDPRESS ACCOUNT ANY LONGER. Oh yes the happy. happy. joy. joy. of it all. I'm ticked, it refused my password, and I may be no geek but I think I can remember my password.

So whatever I tried to change my password went through all the what is your dogs father's maiden name questions, was a sent a new password. That didn't work.

THATS RIGHT THEY SENT ME A PASSWORD THAT DIDN'T WORK.

I thought it must be me, I screwed it up. So I did it again.

ANOTHER PASSWORD THAT DIDN'T WORK.

I am in blogging Hell. "Hi, how are you, here's your handbasket."

Hell.

Soo cuuuute!

2005-03-03T15:15:00.000-08:00

Pixie Potter Update:
Right now, Pixie is reading Mr. Moo's favorite book to him, Ten Little LadyBugs with no prompting from me WHAT SO EVER. I'm just quietly checking emails....errr I mean doing the dishes, in the kitchen..

The cuteness factor is huge!

Naty! Finally

2005-03-03T14:21:00.000-08:00

Holy Flying Pigs Batman! Finally brit sits down to the sewing machine and finishes the flying pig pattern. Naty (for Cincinatti here I come!) is finished, now I can put her on my shelf of Softies to admire, and move on to my dragon plan.

Oh and all those unfinished quilts....hmmm.

This picture is for Jan @ Be*Mused because this post was so interesting to me that I had to take pictures to see if I had Mola's to.

Jan? Mola? Yes or No?

Lady J and I decided we can't do Bloomsday this year, because we have school all day Saturday and Spokane is about an 8 hour drive....which would be WAY FUN do to at 6pm, to get to the run in time....but no we've decided that that was just too WILD AND CRAZY for us. So we are looking for another run in May.

And now for something completely different........

SIMS Update

2005-03-02T15:03:00.000-08:00

I feel like Poop. Go ahead. Feel me. Poop.
Mr. Moo has had a cold since Monday, and I have splitting headache...It's raining and I want to go back to bed....but I have stuff to do.

On top of it all I'm depressed because I can't play SIMS. (note to the The Man, It's not that I would play SIMS instead of doing constructivethings) Just knowing that I can't play SIMS is enough to depress me.

A week ago, my stress levels hit all time high, with the Heart and Sole Run speeding toward me and The Man decided we needed a lovefest.

Not that kind of love fest Sheesh this is a family blog! And he bought me The Sims House Party expansion pact.

And it won't work, I haven't been able to get into my SIMS since I installed it and I can't figure out how to unistall it, it keeps re-installing itself.

What with this dilemna and not being able to manipulate WordPress, I am feeling like a real techno loser.

That is why I've decide that next week I'm using WordPress, no matter if it is super boring....and blue.

I will not be HELD DOWN by the smart geeks...I am not afraid to look stupid.

Obviously.

History lesson

2005-03-02T11:15:00.000-08:00

One of the reasons I am trying to move to Wordpress (yes it's taking a long time, yes I get it, I just can make it look cool yet! Yes I'm bummed) is because I hate that on blogger you can't return comments.

For instance if someone comments, they don't have to leave their email, so I can't respond personnally to their email, which I like to do, because it seems friendly and all. Anyway in response to several emails regarding the Mad Quilters, here is a little history lesson.

Talia, Cool Kelly, Mel, brit, Ren
December 2001, Ellensburg, Wa

Once upon a time there was a girl named brit, she went to visit her college roommate (Mel), Mel was having a party, she had invited some of her sorority friends over (keep in mind that Mel was kicked out of her sorority, for reasons you are to young to hear about). Mel invited Dr. Heather (who brit knew from rowing boats down the Snake River) and Cool Kelly, who brit didn't know from Adam.

Someone, (the details are blurry, it was a long time ago! and yes I like parenthesis!) said "I wanted to make a quilt out of old t-shirts I have" and I said "I did that!" Then I proceeded to tell how I had taken a quilting class after graduation, and was now an experiencedquilter. We suggested getting together once a month for quilting ( the fact that we lived 8hours apart, didn't slow us down....we were young, and independently wealthy...oh wait no.)

So we met at my house, Dr. Heather, Mel and I and this was sometime after 1997, because that was the year I graduated from college. Specific, I know. We started out, with me showing everyone how to piece a block. We each made the same square, in our own style.

In the following terrible picture we see the results of that effort.

We were able to talk Ama

into making a fourth block, then we had a drawing, Dr. Heather won, and we had a quilt group.

My sister decided she wanted to get involved, her and a friend (Talia) pieced the block as well and joined our group. Eventually they each finished a quilt with this pattern.

Ren's blue stars on the left and Talia's mult-colored stars on the right

Soon, Cool Kelly joined us and we found ourselves driving here and there all over the state. Our husbands referred to us as the Crazy quilters, but we insisted that we were Mad Quilters instead. And it stuck.

In June of 2003 we learned that Mel was moving to Chicago (out of driving distance) and then suddenly Cool Kelly left us for career oppurtunities in Texas (again with the driving distance thing). So I created the Mad Quilter's Monthly, published once a month, usually as close to the fifteenth as our get togethers are, to keep all Mad Quilters in the loops.

The Block of the month evolved from us all doing the same block and then drawing a name to, twelve months of doing your own blocks and making a quilt. I am currently picking the BOM's from different sources (see the BOM listed on sidebar for that patterns origin.

So there are the Mad Quilters in a nutshell.....nutty nutty nutshell.

Note to Self

2005-03-01T17:47:00.000-08:00

Note to Self:
If you've missed a few days of another person's blog...Read it before commenting so you don't look like a dumbass...

Case in point: Christine @ A Big Pink Cookie was talking today about blurking and I read that post without reading the previous post and left a comment. (although I have since gone back , and none of my comments are there, so either she has a modifier for her comments, my computer doesn't like hers and wont' leave messages, or she hates me.

note: my comment said...don't you mean de-lurking? or some such dumbness.

Yeah. Me. Dumb.

Crossroads

2005-03-01T10:36:00.000-08:00

I made this quilt for my Mom Mom (dad's mother ) in August of 2001, the same year I completed a quilt of the same pattern Arkansas Crossroads for my grandfather. ( I was busy that year)

I called this quilt Crossroads, after the name, I know...original. The quilt was a part of a block of the month that my guild that year, I made the blocks at the upper left hand corner and the lower left hand corener.

Anyway I've decided to keep posting pictures of quilts I've done, to help inspire me while my sewing room is still under destruction (not construction, we haven't done anything to it yet).

Weekend Recovery

2005-02-28T13:03:00.000-08:00

This morning's run was four miles, Lady J and I are planning to push it to a 10K this Wednesday, after all I have a half marathon in five weeks and her first 10K is coming up in May. Plus we know a route now! *smile*

In other running news, Diana or Running Chick in an Orange Hat who was the first running blog I followed is published in Runner's World. How Cool is that?! Yeah, she's bad.

Not much news in Running Stitch land, getting caught up on my blogs after this weekend, updating Heart and Sole website with run statistics, and chasing Mr. Moo around. He's learned to open drawers and throw things from the drawers at the same time. Fun.

In crafting news, another Month of Softies passes me by. Next Month! But I did enjoy re-reading Alice in Wonderland. I promise myself.

A New Look

2005-02-27T22:03:00.000-08:00

Well, what do you think? Sister Ren made a new masthead for me, isn't it swell? Now if I could just get my Wordpress account working.

I've had lots of advice from blog friends, but my learning curve is not high on this project, and I haven't had the time to really devote to the new process. But anyday now....KAPOW! Holy Wordpress Batman I'll have figured it out.

Any. Day. Now.

Back to School

2005-02-27T14:51:00.000-08:00

Well, the first Annual Heart and Sole Run is over! And it went great! Very smooth, and it looks like, we ended up in the black, which I had hoped for, but our financial team had told me would probably not happen!

Go Kiwanis Go!

We had 62 runner show up, and for the first run with only six weeks of advertising, I thought it went amazingly well!!

My sister took this picture of The Man (turned away from you) Lady J (in hat and red Heart'n Sole shirt) Me, with my back to the camera in a yellow hat and off to the left in a green troll shirt is the Queen Bee.

And of course Mr. Moo, who beat his dad by several seconds

so with that under my belt, I should write that paper due tomorrow in class. If you are my professor, I'm totally kidding, OF COURSE! I have it done!

journaling

2005-02-25T14:19:00.000-08:00

My mom gave me this journal for Mr. Moo's first birthday. She also gave me the Willow figure pictured on the cover. When I was younger (ack! did I say that!) I loved journals. I loved cutting out pictures and pasting them inside, finding witty sayings and quotes to add to my thoughts and observations.

I still look at those journals now and again for inspiration. However I have a hard time starting a new one. I mean, you can't link to anything! I'm such a blog junkie I love being able to direct people to site, pictures, or other points of interest.

The idea of course is to start a journal for Mr. Moo to read at some point. A friend of mine did that with her daughtes and they really liked it. I tried when I was pregnant but I just didn't have the follow through.

I'd love to write in it though, Dear baby, I love the way you smell after a bath, and the way your hair is all staticky after your nap. I love the way you giggle when I kiss your baby neck and I love that you want to play on the keyboard with me, and when you get frustrated you pound on your keyboard as if to say....see what is the big deal? Then you crawl between me and the keyboard as if to say 'HELLLOOOOO!"

And then I have to stop what I'm doing and pick you up and snuggle you and tickle your legs till you laugh and forgive me.

A whole day of NO POSTS!

2005-02-24T21:22:00.000-08:00

Well almost....can it be? Wow I don't think I've gone a day without posting since I became a blog addict!

Anyway, I've been beating my head against the wall trying to get my wordpress acount to bend to my will. It is soooooo not working. So I've been updating my sister's blog, because blogger is my friend...for now.

On a GREAT NOTE! The t-shirts are here, and I'm really pleased with them.

I see tomorrow being a day of running around getting ready for the run so instead I will direct you to my sister's site.

She has a powerful post for illustration Friday, the topic is sorrow and her picture is a tribute to my Late grandfather.

My shoes have come!!

2005-02-23T22:34:00.000-08:00

Woohoo! My shoes arrived yesterday...I'm so excited. It was a little nerve racking ordering them online but they are perfect ...living up to supernova status!

Had a great four miler yesterday, last run for the week, Lady J, Queen bee and I decided to walk Friday morning as a treat for all the stress we are going through on Saturday.

I'm struggling with Wordpress this morning, hoping to move my blog there by next week, but I'm not the tech geek that I want to be, so it is a struggle.

Now I'm off to check me some blogs, and the put on my new shoes and go get firewood...because it is brrrrrrr here.

Family Wreath

2005-02-23T10:20:00.000-08:00

Still having quilt about not accomplishing set goals of sewing Flying Pig together, but I'm busy here! As we race towards the 26th of February,(<---grautitous plug of new website) things are coming fast and furious for the Run. I've talked to no less than ten people today! I'm so excited!

With the heart theme in mind here is a picture my mom sent me of the quilt I made for my Grandma.

I got the idea from the Pajama Party Quilt that I made out of old pajamas. I used the same here, adding some of my cousin's in. Then I had my siblings and cousin send me photocopies of their hands which I traced to make the wreath.

Well I still have everyone's blogs to visit...oh yeah and the dishes to do.

My hilarious husband is in rare form today. Check out today's post.

The. Man.

2005-02-22T21:00:00.000-08:00

And now for something completely different. ....

A website.

That's right. Thanks to The Man, the Heart and Sole run now has a place on the web.

Yes. I realize the run is Saturday. But it is all about longevity people, it is about next year, it is about advertising all year instead of just from January to February, and it is about being married to someone who puts up with your crazy plans and supports you through them and builds a website three days before the run.

That is why. We. Love. The.Man.

(and yes, I could have used more italics, but I chose not to.)

Note to Self

2005-02-22T19:20:00.000-08:00

Note to self:

Do not leave eleven year old in charge of your son, especially when her favorite new word is “transgendered”, because you may return to find that your son has "grown" body parts.

And then you will be forced to post this picture where she looks exactly like Kasmira did at her age…

Related much?

Milkman's Quilt

2005-02-22T14:55:00.000-08:00

Guess What? That right no crafty pictures here, move along! (to quote Zoot) Instead I'm posting a picture of the quilt I made for My Grandpa. Finished in 2001 for his birthday, it is not a terribly good picture of him, but it is the best one I have of the quilt.

Of course my grandfather insisted on pointing to the label because it says I love you grandpa! Gramps! I wanted a picture of the quilt!

The pattern was a crossroads pattern that I used in a quilt for My Mom Mom (paternal grandmother to those of you who are East Coast Challenged) I really like the pattern, because it is one of those versatile blocks you can change to make different designs. I prefer the star shape...I've notice alot of my fabric is stars and spirals, and lot of my quilt designs are starts. In fact when I designed the Mad Quilters 2003 Blocks of the Month, I made it a point to use NO STARS, because branching out is good.

In other news the child I named after Gramps, went to his one year appointment today.

Weighing in at 26.7 lbs, apparently he is not the thirty pounds that I swear he is! And measuring 32 3/4 inches long, he is only in the 95 percentile for weight and has dropped from the 120 percentile in height to 100th percentile....slacker

Not so Crafty

2005-02-21T17:32:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since I posted anything crafty. And this post is no different. I blame the stress, this month has been crazy! Winter Blues the first weekend, Mr. Moo's birthday this weekend and the Heart and Sole Run next weekend. Yeah! Almost there!

Last night I cut out my first flying pig though, and I hope to sew it for tomorrow. My uncle helped me move my sewing machine downstairs, so now I can get sewing done during naptime.

Mr. Moo patiently waiting for me to open the circus train.

Unfortunately my little clockwork napper is off the clock. There has been a lot going on these last few days, what with East Coast Grandma's visit but there was only one miniscule hour long nap today....hopefully that will improve once we cruise back into our normal routine! Don't laugh at me you experienced Mamas! He will nap!

Lady J, Queen Bee, Mr. Moo and I ran the lake this morning, stopping briefly at the sight of the start of the Heart and Sole run for a little pre-race day powwow. We determined the course (of course we had this determined allready, but we cemented starting points and ending points and water station) and discussed last minute ideas.

Our last committee meeting is tomorrow, our registration packet stuffing pizza party is Friday...and EGADS... the run is Saturday. Probably I'll make it through.

Holy Cow

2005-02-20T20:23:00.000-08:00

Well my little Mr. Moo has made a name for himself. What really blows my hair back is when relatives show up and say "hello Mr. Moo." which means...They read my blog! how bizarre is that!!

Guess how many stuffed cows he got for his birthday? Two.

And one cute sweater and hat! I wish I could say that I knitted this or at least someone I know knitted this, but in reality, My mom bought at this cute shop.

In St. Helens, Oregon, they have the cutest things there!

Isn't it funny how our little guys make a name for themselves? And speaking of making a name for themselves, look at the message on Mr. Moo's birthday card from Pixie Potter.

Tomorrow's agenda, finish the Flying Pig I started cutting out today, Run 5miles (with stroller), Pow Wow with the Heart and Sole committee. After next Saturday I'm vacationing....at least in my mind.

Happy Birthday Mr. Moo

2005-02-18T00:09:00.000-08:00

Every time I think about my life without Mr. Moo I feel this terrible pain in my heart and I want to squeeze him tight and never let him go. And because I will never be as prolific as Heather B. Armstrong, I've turned to the words of "another splendid bugger, this is really what I want to say..."

Little Nutbrown Hare, who was going to bed, held on tight to Big Nutbrown Hare's very long ears.

He wanted to be sure that Big Nutbrown Hare was listening. "Guess how much I love you," he said. "Oh, I don't think I could guess that," said Big Nutbrown Hare.

"This much," said Little Nutbrown Hare, stretching out his arms as wide as they could go.

Big Nutbrown Hare had even longer arms. "But I love you this much," he said.

Hmm, that is a lot, thought Little Nutbrown Hare.

"I love you as high as I can reach," said Little Nutbrown Hare.

"I love you as high as I can reach," said Big Nutbrown Hare. That is very high, thought Little Nutbrown Hare. I wish I had arms like that.

Then Little Nutbrown Hare had a good idea. He tumbled upside down and reached up the tree trunk with his feet. "I love you all the way up to my toes!" he said.

"And I love you all the way up to your toes,"said Big Nutbrown Hare, swinging him up over his head.

"I love you as high as I can hop!" laughed Little Nutbrown Hare, bouncing up and down.

"But I love you as high as Ican hop," smiled Big Nutbrown Hare---and he hopped so high that his ears touched the branches above.

That's good hopping, thought Little Nutbrown Hare. I wish I could hop like that.

"I love you all the way down the lane as far as the river,"cried Little Nutbrown Hare.

"I love you across the river and over the hills," said Big Nutbrown Hare.

That's very far, thought Little Nutbrown Hare. He was almost too sleepy to think anymore.

Then he looked beyond the thornbushes, out into the big dark night. Nothing could be farther than the sky.

"I love you right up to the moon," he said and closed his eyes. "Oh, that's far,"said Big Nutbrown Hare.

"That's very, very far." Big Nutbrown Hare settled Little Nutbrown Hare into his bed of leaves.

i

He leaned over and kissed him goodnight.

Then he lay down close by and whispered with a smile,

"I love you right up to the moon--- and back."

Boxed

2005-02-16T22:43:00.000-08:00

I have been completely remiss in not acknowledging the stupendous, mind boggling, too romatic for words, gift, that my husband gave me for Valentine's day.

That's right it is a scanner. Romantic in a cuddly, kissy way? No. Romantic in an exactly what I wanted way. YES! LOVE THE MAN!

But wait, it is still in the box. Why? you ask. How can this be? You stutter. Do you people not pay attention?! I have East Coast Company now, a first birthday party this saturday, and a Fun Run to put on next saturday, not to mention....school.

I am visually fondling the scanner from a far waiting for the moment when I can rip it out of it's box, set it up, and....SCAN THINGS. Any. Thing. I. Want.

Come to think of it, in just a few short minutes there will be three people here fighting for Mr. Moo's attention. The dishes are done, the kid is clean....Look out HP ScanJet. Here I come!!!

In other blog news. KAP of Supportive Quilting husband and SIMs2 fame

has started his own blog. A little blog he introduces to us with the comment: A baptism in blogging predating premier progeny's birth. A story of a boy, the dog that loves him, and their adventures in unemloyment.

Why aren't you there? Reading his stuff?

Note to Self

2005-02-16T15:56:00.000-08:00

Note to Self:
If you have just mopped the floor, to prove to your Relatives (and yourself) that you do in fact clean the house, DO NOT let the dog in.

Unless you want to clean up the mud.

Then go ahead, let the dog in.

In. Out. In. Out. In. Out.

2005-02-16T08:45:00.000-08:00

Right now. I’m working on breathing in. And breathing out. Mr. Moo is not napping. Instead he is talking in loud excited “NA NA NA no no no no’s” to his bottle. In his crib. Where he is staying. For at least an hour. In. Out. In. Out. In. Out.

Yeah, that wave of stress, I’ve been staving off for days, came crashing down this morning. On. My. Head. First, I didn’t make it out of bed this morning for my run, and I really needed a run today, what with my relatives headed this way, and worse, I won’t have time to make it up later. In. Out.

Second, I realized that I forgot to post the BOM yesterday. February’s BOM is a make your own heart block because frankly I’m overwhelmed this month, and knew I wouldn’t have time to mail out the BOM pattern to all the Mad Quilters. There are still a few invitations (gulp) for the birthday party this weekend that haven’t been mailed. In. Out.

Bad. Mama. So be creative Mad Quilters! And I promise to have a patterned block for next month.

Third, the Heart and Sole Run t-shirt’s logo is not working out, the ‘art technicians’ have to re-work my sister’s design for the t-shirts. I don’t understand why. But then it took me a week to figure out Flickr. What can I say?

I let Mr. Moo play with the phone for an hour after getting this news, because I was unable to deal or move forward with that information. And at least I wouldn't have to answer it, if we was calling his friends at Baby Einstein. In....what was that again? Oh, right. Out.....

I sat here reading my blogs, looking for new blogs to read, because I was completely immobilized by stress. Then I read Pamalamadingdong’s entry for today and I realized that I’m NOT ALONE! I’m just like all the other Mama’s. Dangling by a thread! I love me some Pam, that is for sure. Thanks Pam!

Then the Super Nice lady from the T-shirt place (who I’ve dealt with before, and she is always Super Nice, not just when I’m super panicked and super grateful) called and said that her Art Technicians could fix the t-shirt and she would donate the time so Kiwanis didn’t have to pay for it. Ahhhhhh Thanks Super Nice lady!

And finally, while all this is going on. Look who passed out in his crib. Super Nice Baby. Love the Baby.

Now about that housework I have to do before the Relatives arrive at three….

Pixie Potter

2005-02-15T17:00:00.000-08:00

Pixie Potter Update:

Important update from the sixth grade. Pixie Potter informed me that Bouillon cubes do not taste good a la carte.

Man, I’m gonna miss that kid. If she actually moves, I have many plans in the works…they mostly involve tying her to the front porch….

I may have to work on that.

The Countdown

2005-02-15T09:49:00.000-08:00

So I’m into the final countdown. 24 hours till my East coast Relatives arrive at my door. (Dust bunnies beware) 4 days till my baby turns one, and 11 days until the Heart and Sole Run.

Heart and Sole Logo

Being a committee chair is tons of work! I realize this is a big DUH! Still, true, today is the deadline for the t-shirts with some eek room for delivery by race day. Aunt Ren designed these herself...isn't she a stud. She also designed our under the bridge safety Troll shirts, to be worn by the flaggers around the run route, so as to decrease saftey hazards and possible collisions under the bridges.

Which are not pictured below because HELLO IS STILL NOT WORKING, and I still haven't figured out flickr...maybe tonight I'll have two minutes to rub together. I'm neglecting my kid as it is and he has taken to drastic escape measure.

Time to wake up that bouncing baby boy and head to the library for StoryTime!

Ponderings

2005-02-14T16:02:00.000-08:00

Ponderings:

You know when you are paying bills, and you realize the bill is due today (purely hypothetical, I assure you) and so you lie about the date.....

Raise your hand if you think that works.....

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

2005-02-14T14:22:00.000-08:00

It was so beautiful outside this afternoon that I took Mr. Moo out for a romp on his new tri-cycle thingee with a pushing handle for me, that he got for his birthday. And immediately the heavens opened up and it started to hail. Yeah, so you know, he is probably scarred for life now.

Recovery Day

2005-02-14T11:39:00.000-08:00

Well, I missed International Desk Day (saturday) via tania, so here is what my desk looks like.

That's right, Nada. I'm doing nothing, except changing diapers. My sewing machine is retracted into the desk, and my sewing room is still a shambles. And with my mother, aunt, and uncle headed our way from New Jersey, to celebrate Mr. Moo's first birthday this weekend, I don't see construction taking top priority for a while.

I did manage to make this elephant, at my sister's this weekend, for a friend who just had a baby on Friday.

Mr. Moo and I are back from our whirlwind family adventure this weekend. And I am taking it easy, hanging in my bathrobe in front of the woodstove. The Man cleaned house while we were gone, so I feel like I have all this free time. I should be doing things like paying the bills, learning how to use Flickr..(still stumped) and getting dressed, but I’m soaking up the freedom of Mr. Moo napping. Which he DID NOT do all weekend. It is obviously time to start traveling with the Play Pen because he no longer falls asleep without the corral.

Saturday, Mr. Moo hung with Aunt Ren, after lunch with Great-Grandma Doris,

while Mama and Grandma went to a baby shower, then Sunday Aunt Ren, Mr. Moo and Mama visited some old friends and new baby at the hospital, then picked up Auntie Janelle, visiting from Philadelphia.

Aunt Ren and Mama went for a run on the treadmill because it was beyond disgusting in Redmond. 3miles in thirty minutes, but I don’t know how you all train on the treadmill, it was unbelievably difficult! But check out Marissa’s blog she ran a marathon this weekend….what a stud.

When we returned to the apartment, Mr. Moo had trashed it completely and Auntie Janelle looked like she had been hit by a truck, Mr. Moo is a handful for sure!

We arrived back home at 10pm to a very happy to see us Daddy.

No big plans for V-day here both The Man and I have class tonight *ugh* so Mr. Moo gets to spend his first Valentines date with Grandma and Grandpa.

Denial

2005-02-14T11:14:00.000-08:00

I just read Pixie Potter’s Adventures. Her last post says they are moving to Bend, Oregon. I’d like to point out that this CAN NOT possibly be true, since no one has asked my permission! I can’t believe it, I’ve know this baby since she was born, I spent a year and a half of my life as her nanny! She is The Man’s and my first baby. I’m staving off having a breakdown until I see the moving trucks.

In the meantime I’ll be in the corner rocking in the fetal position.

Groovy

2005-02-11T09:17:00.000-08:00

Look to your right for the new link I added, shamelessly asking you to support Lil Zoot's (son of Zoot) in raising money for the American Heart Association. I donated, now you should too! The poor little guy spent the night puking his little guts out, surprise him with some donations!

This whole no picture posting problemo is throwing off my blogging groove, my mojo is damaged. I struggled with Flickr last night but couldn’t figure out how to post to my blog. I did successfully post their TEST FROM FLICKR note to my blog several times but never was I able to post this monkey sock picture I took of Pixie’s feet yesterday.

(Thanks to The Man for posting it for me, love The Man!)

Pixie Potter has started her own blog…entirely on her own, neither her sister nor I helped her. How smart is she? I mean she is only eleven! I’m more impressed with her everyday!

Speaking of impressive, Lady J and I are easily running 5miles now, and are looking to up our mileage next week. Lady J is training for Bloomsday and I’m headed out there as well, but I still have to complete my half marathon first, that's in April.

While we were running at the crack of dawn, this morning, I felt like something was on my face, as I swatted at it, I realized my hair was frozen! That hasn’t happened to me since I was in Pullman.

Lady J and I had to stop and feel each others hair because touching someone else’s head while running is down right dangerous!

In other completely random news, I hope the UPS guy brings me my shoes today! Although I don’t really expect him till next week, I did see a pictures of my new shoes in the new Road Runner that came in the mail yesterday…I’m sooo excited.

Now back to my flickr lesson……..grrr

Porkopolis...its not just a vacation spot anymore!

2005-02-10T16:47:00.000-08:00

After reading about the Flying Pig half marathon on Jon from Michigan's blog. My first thought was FLYING PIG HALF MARATHON....must.....run....need.....the.....tee....shirt!

My second thought was......doesn't Kasmira live in Cinncinatti? What the heck are BEST FRIENDS FROM THE SEVENTH GRADE for if not to pick you up at the airport and let you sleep over in their muy chic, guest bedroom and then cheer you on to the finish line? Well that, and to tell you that cinncinatti used to be refered to as Porkopolis, because of all the pig packing plants.

That was fun to say.

Too bad I'm already registered for the Whidbey Island half in April. Actually that's fine, I have a year to talk The Man into flying to Cinncinatti. Maybe I'll even taken Kaz's little sis Pixie with me, after all both Pixie and I have birthdays in April. Happy Birthday to us!

I'm adding it to my list RIGHT NOW....for next year.

I had to link to a bunch of pictures because I don't know if I mentioned it but I CAN'T POST TO HELLO!

A GOOD MAMA

2005-02-10T09:50:00.000-08:00

Hello is really starting to tick me off. I want to post pictures! How come other Hello users can post pictures! GRRRRRR!

Well, its Thursday, again. Just yesterday it was Monday, and I had a list of goals for the week, now it is Thursday and I have....a list of goals for the week. Right now, I'm sitting in a pile of birthday invitations, trying to get them addressed and in the mail. I realize that family members will probably come even if not invited to Mr. Moo's party but I have to be A GOOD MAMA, and send out invites to my baby's first party.

I'll try to get the man to post the invites that Aunt Ren drew for the birthay party, since his computer is obviously working.

Yes Pamalamadingdong.....I did.

2005-02-09T16:31:00.000-08:00

Yes, Pamalamadingdong, I did go.

I was wavering on the edge of not going, having spent naptime playing SIMS (the original not 2) because I’m IN a coma like state due to lack of sleep, when Pam’s comment pushed me out the door. Thanks!

It took the first three miles to whip (insert whipping noise) Jonah back into shape. It’s been about two weeks since he and I have run together and about two months since we’ve run with the baby stroller. He struggled.

The stroller appears to add a total of five minutes to my Four Mile loop up and down are road. Which is quite a bit, its’ almost like running another half mile.

The kitties took a hiatus from their hiatus to come out and wave to us as we passed by the house, Fric even ran for awhile, that’s right, everyone runs at this house! ( I would have posted a picture of kitties here, but you know...HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO)

The UPS guy drove by too and I was hoping he had brought me my new shoes, for being so good and going running with the family, but not so much as a note.

In other news, I checked out the Hello forum and it looks as though it is causing problems for most of the users, the forum stated they should have the bug worked out in a few days! I have got to get my priorities straight and learn HTML pronto!

Jonah the Dog’s Log
Balls started with:0
Balls lost on run:0
Balls found on run:0
Trips into the Creek: 29

A good run

Hello, Hello, I don't know why you say goodbye.....

2005-02-09T11:48:00.000-08:00

The thing about kids is, it’s not like you can turn them off. When they are up, they’re up. When they’re hungry, they’re hungry, you can’t put them on pause, to run to the bathroom, change the laundry, answer the phone, and check your blogs.

If your precious diaper butt, is not tired and won’t lay down, you hear the screaming all over the house. If he wakes in the middle of the night, for a bottle or a diaper change, you have to get up and take care of it. Once he goes back to sleep, you are often not sleepy anymore. You lay in bed thinking “hurry up, go back to sleep you only have a few hours till he wakes up again” or if you are me. “Okay if I fall asleep now, I have 45 minutes until the alarm goes off to meet my running group”

I missed my run this morning. Because when the alarm went off, I was beyond exhausted and I thought, if I could just sleep till 7am instead of 5am that would be 2 ½ hours of uninterrupted sleepage.

So now I’m faced with the dilemma, of do I run today? Probably. Do I drive into town to get gas, and pump up the running stroller tires, or do I wait until Grandpa comes home from work, hope that not only is he feeling better from the stomach flu, but that he either wants to watch the Buddy or walk the Buddy while I run five miles. Decisions, Decisions.

Hello is frustrating me today, and yesterday, and several days in the past month, because it won’t allow me to post pictures to my blog. I can’t wait till I graduate (in two years) so that I can devote my copious free time (hysterical, tired mommy laughter) to learning HTML and CSS so I don’t have to rely on the cookie cutter blog host.

After Dinner Walk

2005-02-08T20:06:00.000-08:00

After Dinner Walk:

I really am enjoying after dinner walks with my family, I first read about walking after dinner on Susan’s site, and we have really embraced it. It’s more of a after dropping off Pixie Potter walk, but Jonah gets out of the house, and The Man and I get to talk and focus on each other, and our days.

My heel has been hurting me on runs, and started aching again tonight on our walk, but I’m excited because I finally ordered new shoes! Of course I’m a big dope and I ordered the wrong size.

For some reason the online store didn’t carry my size, I though this was weird, but apparently it was because the shoe was discontinued (I didn’t realize). So thinking I was smart I ordered the same shoe in Men’s. Only I calculated the size wrong. Yeah duh! So instead of 9.5 I ordered 11.5. So yeah, too big.

After this was pointed out to me, I called customer service today and they were super nice, and told me that the shoes were discontinued and now came in green/black.

I DON’T CARE WHAT COLOR THE DARN SHOES ARE! JUST SEND ME SOME NEW ONES! Anyway we got it all figured out and now I’m waiting the 7-10 days for my new shoes to come.

Jonah the Dog’s Log
Balls started with:0
Balls lost on run:0
Balls found on run:0
Times counseled about tripping us with the leash: too many

Mama's new laptop

2005-02-08T10:09:00.000-08:00

My friend is running the Sherwood Forest half marathon…um that is so cool.

And I’m so jealous.

Speaking of jealous, somebody needs more attention from Mama.

Mama's laptop

There are many ways that the HP notebook is making my life better:

1) I can do homework in front of the woodstove, so I’m warm.

2) I can sit on the floor (in front of the woodstove, doing homework) and stretch my tight legs that I never stretch regularly after running, because I’m a BAD PERSON!

3) I can check my blogs, err I mean DO MY HOMEWORK! At the table while Mr. Moo plays on the floor with his toys

I'm so glad I was talked into getting this notebook! This is just one of the many reasons why we love THE MAN! Although, I afraid to say that I believe my housework productivity level will go down because, I no longer have to use the COLDEST ROOM ON EARTH, computer room, so I never will emerge from there again thinking “hmmm doing the dishes will warm up my frozen fingers.” Sorry, babe. Maybe we could get paper plates?

Well today we are printing off Mr. Moo’s first birthday invitations (yikes!) and I’m realizing I have no free weekends until March! I have to a baby shower for one of The Man’s cousins this weekend and I have an elephant to make sometime this week. Luckily Pixie Potter is headed our way today so that I will have no excuse not to get it done; I don’t even have any homework tonight! ( Ihope my prof didn't read that! I'm totally doing my reading and checking the interent for Solution Focused sources!)

I also want to make a backpack for my new laptop, I been inspired by Mariko’s and Sunni’s totes. Plus I need lots of pockets for diapers and such. I stopped by the new ROSS ( I heard they had computer bags) that just opened in Small Town USA, this am , but they don’t open till 9:30.

WHAT THE HECK? What is the point of a chain store if you can be there at the crack of dawn to pursue the stuff? Sheesh.

Check out this cool new quilt blog I found on Mariko’s site. And for you knitters out there, this woman makes me want to learn how to knit. Darn cute stuff!

Winter Blues 2005

2005-02-07T09:35:00.000-08:00

The fifth annual Winter Blues Quilting Bee was a notable success if I do say so myself. And I do. I feel like the last year or so has been a struggle with Mel and Cool Kelly moving out of driving distance, finding quilters that you enjoy quilting and spending time with can be a struggle.

The group of women here Saturday was AWESOME! All of them were interested in quilting (and food) and it was just a great group. The Ugly Animal quilt was resurrected and continues to be a favorite with beginners.

Quilting Ugly Animal

Mr. Moo’s quilt a gift from Grandma, is almost done. This quilt’s history is just great, when we told my in-laws that Mr. Moo was headed our way, my mother-in-law began searching for some old things of The Man’s but instead she found these blocks that she had started in the seventies (you can tell by the colors). I loved them, and we had decided on a ‘bug’ theme for the baby’s room, because it could go either way.

She added a caterpillar and a slug and a few more flowers, she is quilting butterflies on the two sides and a caterpillar across the top. It will be one of my most treasured quilts, and I may even let Mr. Moo sleep under it! What a piece of history.

Here is Aunt Ren working on some drawings in front of the Bug Quilt, I'll have to get a better picture of it.

Ren-bug quilt

Pixie Potter was there as the back up babysitter, she spent most of her time playing SIMS2, (THAT I JUST GOT INSTALLED ON MY COMPUTER! WOOHOO)

SIMS2-1

Aunt Ren (official Mad Quilter)is seen here teaching Mr. Moo about some of the Mad Quilters family (T’s mother in law). Mr. Moo seems a bit alarmed by this particular reading of his favorite book.

Another reading of tails

Of course there was a lot of food, as is the Mad Quilter custom, because you have to have grazing, its not like everyone gets tired at the same time, there is quilting, then wandering off to eat, then quilting. To the right you see Lady J and Grandma yukking it up.

Food!

I just like this picture because it shows Pixie playing SIMS2 in the background.

SIMS2-3

On the floor to the right you see Ama, who is talking about her quilt project that she has her seventh graders do (she's a math teacher) The each have to make a six inch quilt square, in a rail fence pattern. They have to measure, cut, sew, and remeasure the block to do the assignment correctly. She also has students can, working on measuring and fractions. Isn't she cool?

We even got some Heart and Sole Fun Run business done when a fellow Kiwanian called to talk about Sponsorship and the Kids Race we have planned for that day. Here is another of my running buddies and fellow kiwanians (among other things) Queen Bee taking the call, amongst her scrapbooking that she brought with her.

H & S business

Amazingly there are no pics of T (official mad quilter) and her belly, how did that happen? Well T, you join the ranks of Mel (official mad quilter) and Cool Kelly (official mad quilter). We did get a picture of KAP (official daddy-to-be). Guess what he is doing?

SIMS2-4

ps. did you notice I learned how to put more than one pic in the post? Yeah, I'm bad.

Sunday, running, Sunday

2005-02-06T13:36:00.000-08:00

Well there is nothing like a Sunday Run, and today was nothing like a Sunday run. Weekend runs are the best because you aren’t racing the clock to get home and shower before work or the baby wakes up or dinner needs to be ready or darkness falls. It is a leisurely run, usually a high mileage day with lots of pep talking on many topics.

But, Lady J and I only managed 4 miles today, in the downpour with added wind gust running conditions. We had planned about a six mile run today but ended early after the second time we had to stop because my hat had blown off.

Home an showered, hours later, I’m still trying to warm up as I type in front of the woodstove. Brrr. Chilly.

The Heart and Sole Run is quickly approaching, and there seems to be problem with the active.com link so I have to go problems shoot that.

Quilting bee was a huge success! More to come later!

Celtic Tulips

2005-02-04T20:35:00.000-08:00

Here is the picture of the Celtic Tulips, missing two tulips. I really am enjoying the applique of these intricate blocks.

Celtic Tulips

It’s not what you think! I have not been cleaning my house all day, meticulously cleaning the refrigerator with a cute tip, responsibly mopping the floors. No!

The reason I’ve not posted today is because my cousin was here setting us up with wireless internet. OH YEAH!

That’s right. I’m sitting in my bed right now, waiting anxiously to explore SIMS2 which he also installed on my computer, while the boys watch silly shooting movies in the other room. Life is good.

All alone. In my room. Without a baby. On the internet. Groovy.

I’m ready for tomorrow, except I haven’t prepared the meat tray, the veggie tray, made the fudge or the cookies or my Block. But I’m not stressed.

Okay, I’ve had a few stressed out moments tonight, including, but not limited, to bath time when Mr. Moo decided to poop in the bath. I have truly never seen anything like it. Needless to say, the bath was rendered irrelevant and he got a shower. What is it with babies and timing? He always has a poopy diaper right as we are getting the car, especially if I just changed him.

The Man handles the stress freak outs pretty well, he stands there calmly looking at me as if to say, “I could deal with the second head, but the third one that spins, really kind of freaks me out”.

Running really helps me control my stress and the five miler today worked great! Although it seems like the minute you read something (like Marissa’s ITB problems) you suddenly start experiencing the same problem. Or you think you do, my heel is really bothering me and I think I need to do some more ITB stretches.

Well that and get some new shoes. I know. I know. I had new shoes, but they were too small. Apparently New Balance runs a size smaller than normal shoes, so back to shoe shopping. Lady J, bought my old/new shoes and has been singing their praises ever since. Some people have no tact!

Allright, Blog updated, Brit Happy, SIMS2: CHECK!

Happy Weekend Bloggers!

The Plumber

2005-02-03T10:49:00.000-08:00

Mr. Moo just waved at someone, on his own!

For the first time!

And guess who that person was?

That's right.

The plumber.

The Ugly Animal Quilt

2005-02-03T09:50:00.000-08:00

Well you’ve all heard about it and here it is, The Ugly Animal Quilt. It really isn’t Ugly and neither are the animals, I don’t know where it got the name, although it was most likely from me.

Ugly Animals

Basically I put this quilt together for my first Winter Blues (which was an Apple theme because we were quilting an apple core quilt) so that those new or non-quilters who were too intimidated to work on the apple core because they might “mess it up” had something they felt comfortable working on.

Five years later, it’s still not done, sort of like my housework. The one thing I’m sure (I’m sure) you all know, since I doubt that there is anyone who does less housework than I do, is that once you start cleaning your house it suddenly becomes filthier in comparison.

House: sure Mr. Moo crawls around all day, but suddenly when cleaning I notice black kitty cat hair everywhere.
Kitchen Floor: Mr. Moo’s favorite snacking spot, covered in dried raisin spots, smashed cracker and juice stains.
Refrigerator: I store food here?!
Garbage can: Disgusting.
Microwave: YUCK

So the cleaning continues, and I thought I didn’t get any sewing done on normal days! On a great note! The plumber is here to fix the toilet and shower so I get my bathroom back again!!!

Once Upon A Time

2005-02-02T09:43:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time, I woke up at 5am three times a week and ran 3.5 to 5miles. That was before baby bumpkin butt arrived. Since he really is having a hard time grasping the concept of SLEEPING ALL NIGHT, I've been trying to run during the day.

But it is hard to get motivated, and as I move into serious training mode, I have to admit defeat, so I'm back up at 5am and I feel really good. It is great to feel the mileage adding up. I'm just not an afternoon runner.

3.5 miles today.

In other news. I got my come uppance for my taunting post yesterday.

chilly

Uh, yeah it's cold here. It was 36 degrees when I left the house at 5am and I built a fire when I got home to heat us up. Doesn't Mr. Moo look thrilled? He says what is with you people! It was warmer in the womb.

In Quilting news, ITS WEDNESDAY! YIKES! That means only three more days to clean the house, organize stuff, figure out where my quilt frames are stashed (do to the not-really-cruizing) remodel of my sewing room, make my quilt squre (heart) and then figure out what quilts (besides the standard Ugly Animal Quilt) to put on the frames. Maybe I could finish one by Friday. Probably not.

On top of that I started my Tsunami Block and then quickly realized, I have to send this thing to Spain by the fifteenth.

Oh and then there is school, right.

Under Control...no really.

Monkey Moments

2005-02-01T15:20:00.000-08:00

Pixie Potter Update:

Pixie: This boy on the bus thought I was mute.
Me: Really?
Pixie: Yeah, because this girl and I were talking in sign language.
Me: Do you know sign language?
Pixie: No.

Monkey Girl

Yeah, I said flowers!

2005-02-01T10:06:00.000-08:00

And here is the proof. The foreground definitely shows Tulips, but I’m not sure what is behind them.

Flowers...

Yesterday morning I felt slightly overwhelmed by the month ahead, but I was also crunching for an exam that is over now and writing a proposal to formalize THE RUN which I’ve turned in now and a 3pm Monday meeting loomed over me, where I enlisted the help of the local teens from the teen center whom THE RUN benefits. Talk about some impressive kids!

But now that is all behind me and I can say, WOW, how jealous of me are you? I get to stay home and play outside with my soon to be walking son in the WOODS.

Yeah…I know. You hate me.

And this morning while he was napping. I gardened.

Jonah the Dog’s Log (while gardening)
Balls started with:0
Balls lost :1
Balls found :1
Okay day.

Christmas Tulips

2005-01-31T10:33:00.000-08:00

This weekend we visited Ama and Poppa G. They live in Miniscule Town USA. Mr. Moo took a nap under this Christmas Tulip Quilt, it is actually a patterned piece of fabric that Ama liked a lot so she sandwiched it and quilted the thing. It is very snuggly.

Christmas Tulips

Visiting gave me plenty of time to work on my current UFO, which I call Celtic Tulips. Celtic Tulips should be available for picture taking soon. I think I may combine it with my Spring Thing tulips, possibly for a baby quilt or just a wall hanging. I’m not really a wall hanging type girl but I’ll try it.

Well, it’s Monday Morning and I was hoping to hit the ground running on this newly titled and combined blog but I feel instead like I'm swimming in concrete. Having class Monday night seems to really cut down on my productivity. Plus this month is pretty much non-stop for me. This weekend I have my annual Winter Blues Quilting bee, and I haven’t finished my block for my own party yet!

The next weekend my sister is visiting from Philadelphia, and one of The Man’s cousins is having a baby shower, so Mr. Moo and I will be in Seattle all weekend, then next weekend, Mr. Moo turns ONE! HOW DID THAT HAPPEN? And Relatives from near and far will be converging here for festivities.

And the final weekend of this month is the Heart and Sole run. Sheesh. Well I should get cracking, because on top of all that, I have school and an exam tonight.

To round off this Tulip entry, I noticed this morning that either Crocuses or Tulips are popping their heads through the wet dirt in my garden!

When Good Toys, Go Bad

2005-01-28T10:23:00.000-08:00

choo choo debacle

One thing about having a Goal list is that you really start to feel like you are achieving things. Because you can mark them off. I love lists, for just this reason.

I have noticed though that the things I want to do on the goal list are getting crossed off quicker.

For instance: Update Blog, make cookies for neighbor who just had baby, cut out giraffe for Cookie monster, instituting after dinner walks.

Are crossed off.

While finish study questions, clean bathroom, do laundry, are not.

But why focus on the negative? After dinner walks are quickly becoming a favorite with me, and especially with Jonah. After all Jonah needs fourteen walks a day so that he can pee on every blade of grass that may have grown while he was inside, or on the porch.

It is a nice time to spend with the Man, and Mr. Moo as well, winding down after eating. It is especially nice on the nights we drive Pixie home, we can just stop off at the Lake and walk. It really helps me to focus on The Man, and his day and our plans for the week, weekend, life.

I got the idea for after dinner walks from Susan at Finally Running one of the many running blogs I enjoy. Which brings me to another topic. My running blog. I have been feeling schizophrenic lately what with my running blog, home improvement blog and terrapin textiles, and after talking with some blogger buddies I'm going to combine my two main blogs.

So starting next week this blog will be Running Stitch, and you may see some running type stuff! Don't worry, running and quilting are what keep me sane and there will still be plenty of both....until I go crazy.

Later guys!

Pixie Update

2005-01-27T15:37:00.000-08:00

Important SIMS update:
Pixie Potter informed me that if you don’t like one of your SIMS characters you can invite them over to swim in your pool and then take the ladder out so that they drown.

Note to self:
Don’t piss off Pixie.

Celtic Blues

2005-01-27T09:06:00.000-08:00

I’ve been knocking around the house wishing I had a project ready to quilt, the problem with having your sewing machine in your baby’s room is that when he is sleeping you can’t work on it. And hen he is awake, YOU CAN'T WORK ON IT. So quilts in need of piecing go unpieced.

Especially if he has become enamored with drawers, opening and shutting them, and taking things out of them, then inevitably putting those things in his mouth. Not so good with pins and needles.

Celtic Blues

I found this picture today of my Celtic Blue quilt. T (Mad Quilter) and I took a Celtic quilting class sometime while I was pregnant ( ever notice how things suddenly become before, during and after pregnancy?)

It reminded me of another Celtic project I started, so I went digging in the basement where my sewing room currently lives in boxes and found the traced but un-started project. (Not picture worthy yet.)

Yay! Now I have something to work on (besides my homework) while Mr. Moo is napping.

That’s right UFO list here I come!

Fire Risk Level- HIGH

2005-01-26T10:40:00.000-08:00

Note to self:
Maybe you shouldn’t sit down at the computer, just for a minute, if you are in the middle of making bean soup, and ironing. Potential for setting the house on fire, is high.

Blogger Mystery

2005-01-26T09:50:00.000-08:00

Below are the two pictures that gave me so much stress yesterday, they are trying to do the same today but I have out smarted them HA HA! For some reason if I just post the pictures they turn out fine, but if I post text with the picture they are just a little box. What a pain!

With my sewing room in shambles, my blogs in limbo, and my readings for class undone, I’ve been in serious need of inspiration. Why does posting my own quilts inspire me? I think it is reassurance that I can complete projects!

I love making quilts out of old clothes, it is so comfy feeling somehow. I think I mentioned it before, but making quilts for guys often presents a challenge and I’ve found that most of them respond well to denim quilts.

I made this quilt for my husband before we were married, when we were just living together, in sin. And it has been our bed every since. Frankly I like the denim look too.

Lookin Good

2005-01-25T16:28:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I had a little blogging melt down this morning when it took five minutes to download a picture and then every time I added text the picture disappeared. I couldn't figure it out and Mr. Moo wasn't interested in letting me, so frustration got the better of me and I signed off and turned off the computer.

Pixie Potter showed up as usual at three and it allowed me time to sit down, and concentrate on my blog, and once I determined that the slow factor was over I went into the template and changed things around.

Still have a few kinks to mess around with, but I feel better. And I look better, to me anyway.

Also while I was on my afternoon computer hiatus, I cut out a giraffe to sew together. I decided that cutting out softies is one thing I can do while the Buddy is napping and then I can sew in spurts.

Funny how after a day of writing down your goals, you can feel overwhelmed! Back to the business of making quilts!

BLOG VACATION DAY

2005-01-25T09:14:00.000-08:00

When your blog doesn’t cooperate with your wants, and you are already feeling disillusioned with it because it is not what you want, you take the hint and walk away from it for the day. OFFICIAL TERRAPINTEXTILES BLOG VACATION DAY.

It's what's for dinner

2005-01-24T09:16:00.000-08:00

My class this weekend was INCREDIBLE, which I think is saying something since it took up my whole weekend, the only time all week when I see The Man! It was an organizational management class and not only was the professor engaging, and get nuts he is a manager! There was no silly gimmicky crap, like if you just motivate your people you'll have a well run agency.

He said basically sometimes you have crappy employees and you have to work hard to hire the people you want and keep the people that do a great job! That was super simplified because I know you don't want the full 24 hours of lecture, but it was good! Realism in action. I love it.

So I came home totally re-energized (weird, huh?) and ready for the week. And ready to organize my life, thinking about my goals, what I want, what I don't want and how to get there.

I have been struggling lately with my two blogs Run Turtle Run and this one because running and quilting are both passions of mine, but they don't seem to merge well. I've come up with some ideas how to merge them but I think it will involve me moving to a different blog host or *egads* setting up my own server to get the look and organization that would be easy to negotiate for the Internet.

There is nothing I hate more than going to a blog which I can't figure out because 1) they've got dark purple writing on a black background and I can't see a think or 2) it is so disorganized that I get lost and can't follow the layout.

So thoughts on that welcome. But the best thing about my weekend was the dinner The Man made last night.

Pot of Moo

Quilting in Baby Kingdom

2005-01-21T10:16:00.000-08:00

I decided it was time to shake off the non-quilting blues, due to lack of sewing machine accessibility. One, who wants to be depressed? Two, I have a paper to write and I AM A PROCRASTINATOR PEOPLE! So, I broke out the sewing machine.

Since my sewing machine is in Mr. Moo’s room currently, while construction goes on (or sits at a standstill because have you tried ripping down sheetrock with an eleven months old around? Uh, Yeah.) in the other room, I am sitting on a plastic tub of material sewing borders on Pixie Potter’s quilt.

Baby Kingdom

I’m currently working on one of three borders, a dark purple, which will be followed by a random nine patch pattern of all the material I used in the quilt, and then another solid border before binding.

Quilting around Mr. Moo is a challenge for sure, I learn new tricks and techniques everyday. Obvious tips include, don’t leave your pins laying out, don’t leave fabric laying out (this is very tasty when you are a baby, I don’t know why) don’t leave rotary cutters out, scissors, you get the idea. But, having speed crawlers also mean you can’t leave quilts laying on the floor, while pinning or cutting unless rug rats are contained (unhappily, most often) in playpen or crib.*

I use to carefully pin all my bindings before I whip stitched them, now I use a total of ten straight pins, because I can remember that number and look for the pin if it falls out (nightmares of firstborn choking on pin, stepping on pin, poking out eye with pin: check, check, check). Then I whipstitch pinned area before moving on to next section. Flexible. That’s me.

On a random note (is there another kind?) I realized while writing out my quilting needs list that it could be somewhat incriminating if found by the Drug Task Force.

Mamma’s
Needles
Razor Blades.

Quilter or Meth head? You decide.

I’m not looking forward do this weekend at all. Three days of school Friday night 6-10 , Saturday and Sunday 8-5. Yuck, Yuck, Yuck! And have I mentioned school is 45 minutes away so really it is 5-11, and 7-6. Yuck to infinity squared.

Three days of not working on the ex-sewing room/now sewing room again, project. Three days of not quilting and three days (most likely) of not running.

On the upside it will probably be the first three days in eleven months of not changing any diapers, or doing housework, oh whoops I forgot I don’t do that anyway.

*Mr. Moo only contained in crib for photoshoot, I do not jail my kid in his crib all day while I merrily sew, you'll notice the toys strewn about beneath crib where he had been happily playing only moments before. And the walnut clutched in his fist....why? because Daddy gave him one, one time, and walnuts are THE BOMB PEOPLE!

What Paper?

2005-01-20T13:16:00.000-08:00

sewing room

So this is what my Sewing room looks like to date. The Man talked me into keeping my room instead of switching with Mr. Moo. His theory being that the Rug Rat doesn’t need a bigger room because, he will play all over the house.

For example, the stairs are AWESOME! Let’s go up and down, and up and down and up and down them! Have you seen these furry black kitties? Let lick them all over and hold on to their tails and giggle at the noise they make. LOOK! A toilet, it’s like the bath tub only Mama makes loud noise and picks me up whenever I play in it. It’s great. HAVE YOU SEEN THESE FISH TANKS? It’s better than eating the dirt off the floor! Did you know that if you put your face up to the window and smear it around you can then LICK YOUR OWN SNOT OFF?!!! HAPPY ! HAPPY! JOY! JOY!

So I can kinda see the man’s point, and after all I like my sewing room. So now to continue on with the reconstruction and building of bookshelves and so forth. In the meantime, it stinks to not be able to run up stairs and make a giraffe or what not.

Although I’ve been thinking about bringing my machine downstairs, because really the only time I have to sew is when Mr. Moo is sleeping, and he is sleeping on the same floor as the machine.

I actually was hand sewing a border on to one of my quilts last night (usually I machine piece, and hand quilt) just because I wanted to do something that wasn’t homework. Speaking of which, enough procrastination. Back to paper writing.

Jonah

2005-01-19T14:11:00.000-08:00

The weather is balmy 57 today and so we enjoyed the don’t-have-to-bundled-up-our-noses warmness and went for a two mile walk. I need to be running five miles on Saturday, now that I’m officially in the training for my half in April mode.

I’m not feeling the pressure at all because I’m easily running 3.5 now. Finding the time is a little bit more of an issue. I have a weekend class this weekend (fun! Fun! Fun!) and school is 45 minutes away so that may be tricky. But its important to have goals.

Sadly, Jonah lost a badly mutilated ball on our walk, but made up for it by peeing 37 times! Then he found a pumpkin to play with and that cheered him up a lot.

pumpkin

Jonah the Dog’s Log:
Balls started with:1
Balls lost on run:1
Balls found on run:0
Pumpkins found: 1

BONK

2005-01-19T10:22:00.000-08:00

My baby is eleven months old today. I didn't even realize it, of coures I bonked the back of my head while I was closing the closet door, (yeah, I don't know how I did it either) that may explain some of it.

You know what this means? I better get cracking on invitations, and ballons, and turtle paraphanelia for a first birthday party!

Ramblings of a Redhead

2005-01-19T03:30:00.000-08:00

Gratuitous picture of my kid.

Sooo cute.

Isn't it amazing how fast you connect with people on the internet? As you know I struggle with how open to be on my posts, but as I blog longer and become more comfortable I open up more and more.

However I'm constantly amazed at other's openness, and willingness to let the internet into their lives. We can shift through our daily blogs reading about other people's lives, taking on their burdens, feeling their grief, talking about them with our friends, only to get to that awkward part of the conversation when your running partners says "now, how do you know heather?"

It sort of like renting. You can take some new friends home, add them to your blog favorites, check them out for a couple of weeks, see if you like them or not, comment once in a while, and either add them to your list of daily reads or move on to someone whose interests are more like yours, or whom you have a lot in common with.

Which I grant you is a lot like daily life, but the internet is like diet friendships. No guilt. If you don't like someone's website, you don't comment, you move on, and unless you are of the breed that must CRASH AND BASH because you are a bitter poo, no one ever knows you are there, you hurt no ones feelings you just don't visit anymore.

Okay, I've got quilting block, because my room is TRASHED and writers block, because, you guessed it (you guys are good) I should be writing a paper for school. Back to the grind. *sigh*

A Spring Thing

2005-01-18T08:59:00.000-08:00

Since I finished a project Sunday, I thought I'd dig out something else to add to my UFO list.

Here is a picture of the Tulips that came of my fourth Annual Quilting Bee, last April.

Tulips

For the last four years (five this February) I have a Winter Blues Quilting Bee. The deal is, you have to bring a potluck dish, but other than that there are no requirements. If you are at all interested in quilting or are a master quilter you are invited.

I have quilts set up, ranging from the Ugly Animal Quilt (for everyone, beginner or not to quilt on, because YOU CAN'T MESS IT UP!) to Mad Quilter projects. Because, in case you haven't guessed I am a quilt a holic and I also have an organizing-people-into-doing-things problem. Like the Yearly Cancer walk team I organize or this year project, a Fun Run fundraiser for the new teen center opening in town. But I digress, as I so often do.

For the first three years, if you were an accomplished quilter you brought a block, a star block, any kind of star. If you were unsure, you came with fabric or stole some from my stash and someone helped you make a block. It had to have blue in it somewhere (for the Winter Blue theme) and it had to be a Multiple of three (3.5, 6.5. 24.5 unfinished). Around three in the afternoon all the finished blocks were put together and we drew the name of one of the participants who then received all the blocks.

I started this the second year, My mother in law won first, then one of the Mad Quilter's sisters. Last year I had a baby in February (Winter Blues was annually held the first weekend in February) so the Winter Blues was postponed.

I moved it to April and changed the theme to A Spring Thing (just for that year). I sent out Tulip Patterns, above are pictures of the ones that were done. My mother-in-law won again, but since she hasn't finished her first top, the quilt she is making for Mr. Moo, or her Christmas wreath quilt (basically she is ) 0 for 0 in quilting) she gave them to me.

I planned to make a tablerunner for this year, which obviously isn't happening, especially now that my Sewing Machine is packed up. *sigh*

This year's invitations to the Winter Blues went out last week. This years theme, hearts, because I love everybody, and I can applique it! *grin*

Elephantitis

2005-01-17T09:29:00.000-08:00

Well it's done. Pink Elephants officially moving from UFO list to Quilt Gallery (see sidebar). I'm just happy that my Quilt Gallery list is currently bigger than my UFO list. Success!

I am loving the tag I made for this Quilt, I usually just do boring old squares, but I have already cut out a polar bear tag for the Polar Bear Quilt, cuz I thought this was so cute.

tag

The hardest thing about finishing a quilt is figuring out what to do next, The Man just rolls his eyes because their are several things, including Denim Fish that he would like me to finish!

But after this weekend my sewing room, is empty and their is a hole in the wall. My sewing machine is packed up and crammed into the Baby's room with other random furniture.

Which means the quilt square for the Tsunami Quilt is on hold but I have a month, and the BOM for February is going to be applique. In the meantime I was able to figure it out, I'm appliquing the red tree on to Pixie Potter's Quilt.

And there you have it I mentioned every UFO on my list. Don't worry, I have two more to add soon!

Happy Martin Luther King's Day.

Turtle Pie Nap

2005-01-15T13:19:00.000-08:00

The problem with today's project is that it is on the same floor at the baby's room. So currently Mr. Moo is napping and therefore all construction type things have come to a stand still.

The Man is shopping firewood to heat our chilly home, and I'm helping by blogging and playin Sims. You know how it is. A mother's work is never done. *sigh*

turtle pie nap

Seriously though, I'm bummed because it is not snowing, it is rainy and miserable and cold, but no snow. Of course the rain probably means it is snowing on the pass. I'm sad to miss another Mad Quilter's meeting. I missed December's as well.

We mad quilters are sadly lacking in numbers these days. We can't find Cool Kelly anywhere, she moved to Texas and was never heard from again. Li'l Muscle lives in Chicago, and so that only leaves three in driving distance.

Above is the picture of the Turtle Pie Quilt that never shows up in its picture for some reason. I'll have to fix that link.

Snow Shmow

2005-01-14T14:30:00.000-08:00

The weather report is predicting snow and icy rain for tonight and tomorrow and the Man has opted out of our pilgrimage across the mountains. Being a responsible parent Stinks! No Mad Quilters this weekend. *sniff*

Scott has promised to make it up to me though. I'm excited!!

January Block of the Month

2005-01-14T09:42:00.000-08:00

In the spirit of International Desk Day I decided to get organized, and have for my own good deemed the fifteenth of each month Mad Quilter's BOM day, mostly so that I'll get my rear in gear and get the BOM out before the next month.

I realize it is the fourteenth, it is the fourteenth right? But tomorrow is a Mad Quilter Convening so I must have the the post and the block done today, and look it is! Go me!

This month's block is called card trick and I have again used Judy Martin's book Around the Block pg 43.

card trick

Each BOM takes me approximately an hour to do and they are nice easy ways to learn different patterns, and challenge yourself. Plus one a month and you have twelve blocks in a year or a week or a day, depending on how you want to work it.

Happy Quilting!

Saturday Morning Crew

2005-01-13T10:36:00.000-08:00

Originally the Mad Quilters were called the Saturday Morning Crew, and this was because it was made up of three ex-rowers. As in

Row Row Row your Boat,
gently down the River,
If you don't pull on your oar
The coach will just jump and scream more.

That kind of crew. And we decided we wanted to quilt, we were soon joined by my sister and her roommate, and thought about changing our name, after several years we became the Mad Quilters.

Here is a quilt a made from the Challenge Fabric (my local guild puts out a challenge each January, sorta like the Hoffman Challenge) a few years ago, when it was still the three original members.

the original

Now I have to go call the roofer, because yes we get a lot of rain in the Northwest, but from what I hear, it's not supposed to be in your house, on your couch.

Which brings me to my final point. Tsunami's. Marta is putting together a Tsunami Quilt. I'm excited, especially since I just can't figure out what to do for the January Month of Softies.

Okay, roofer. Right.