It's the Occasional Comment Like This One that Makes it all Worthwhile

from Anonymous:
Zoey,

I have long wanted to leave a comment for you. I just want you to know what an absolute inspiration you are to me. As both a gardener and a novice quilter, I am encouraged and constantly inspired by your talent in both areas. Your quilting and your love of design and home-making are an on-going source of inspiration to me! You savor and utilize every moment of every day! (After teaching for over 30 years, I will retire in three months. I am so looking forward to doing exactly what I want to do each and every day.)

You are a wonderfully talented lady who makes living life a wonderful journey. Kudos to you, my friend!!

Someone who has enjoyed your blog for over a year....

Anonymous, thank you so much. I cannot express how good I felt after reading this. Congratulations on your upcoming retirement!

Last night I completed border #3 and I've finally made one that I like. I have used that green fabric in a couple of the centers so I think it ties it all together without taking away from the stars.

Now I will just roll it up and set it aside to await it's turn for quilting.

Maybe I will try to machine quilt this one. Then again, maybe not. I don't even know how to machine quilt and I like this one too much to mess it up. I am still awaiting the quilting package for my new machine. It's been a month now and still nothing. Evidently it’s on back order because they are out of walking feet.

Just as I was posting this I got a comment from Jodi at Organized Chaos saying that she considered me as one of the bloggers she "loves reading because of their positive-ness!:)" Oh, my goodness. I feel even more special. Thank you, Jodi!

Tonight I Reaped the Rewards from a Previous Day's Labor

Remember a few weeks ago when I made chicken pot pies and I froze some for future meals?

Well, tonight was the future.

It was great to have the meal all prepared. I just threw it from the freezer to the oven, made a tossed salad and dinner was ready. It was almost as good as the first time around.

Have you noticed that people are getting very grouchy?

I noticed it at work today. Just about everybody had a sour attitude. I think they are all sick of winter. Not me. I don't know why, but I am loving the cold weather this year. I like being toasty and warm inside while snow squalls (or icy rain) bang against the windows.

Unfortunately I have to go out into it every morning to get to work. That's the part I don't much care for!

Well, I am off now to make another attempt at a border for the pink star quilt. This will be my third attempt. I hope it's the charm.

Ice is Falling in Horizontal Sheets off the Side of My House

I went outside to take some pics and I couldn't even walk on the driveway as it's sheer ice. It was raining while I was outside so the sheet of ice on the road is now covered in water, which will freeze tonight.

Since I live on a seldom used dead end road, it won't get plowed or salted until all the main roads are taken care of.

On top of this we are supposed to get 4 inches of snow tonight. I am not looking forward to getting to work tomorrow.

At the moment I am not going to worry about it. It's a wonderful day to enjoy being home.


I spent all day yesterday making the border blocks for the star quilt. I think I made 36 of them.

Now that they are done, I don't like them. At all.

I tried different arrangements.

Nothing works.
The blocks are just too overpowering for the stars.

This is quite disappointing as I do not have enough of the same fabrics to attempt another border. So either I use these or just leave it as is.

It really hurts to have done all that work for nothing.

I decided to test the size without the last border. I did add one border to turn the triangles into squares.

Just about perfect!

So perfect in fact, that I decided to spend about two hours under it to finish reading my murder mystery.

And talk about a quilt nut....just look what I am reading. The murder victim was found under a stack of quilts!

Maybe all my work will not be in vain. Perhaps I can use them for a table topper. I played around to see what could be made


They will make a 40.5 square which might be nice to cover a side table. I am confident that I will find a use for all of them. Now I feel better about spending all that time making them.

Early this morning I roasted a chicken.

With all the ice DH thought power lines may be going down and I wanted to be prepared with a meal. So far we have not lost electrical power, but my dinner is all cooked and just waiting for me to reheat.

All in all I am having a wonderful Sunday. I hope you are, too.

It's Friiiiiiiiii Dayyyyyyyyyy

Yippee!

I am free for two whole days to do whatever I feel like doing!

I had appointments for three out of 5 days after work this week. I HATE having to go anyplace after work. I want to just get home, change into jammies,chill out for a couple of hours, have dinner, sew, read blogs and go to bed. That's my idea of a wonderful evening.

After work today, I had to go to H & R Block to sign some tax returns, then I went to Joanne's to get fabric to finish my border for the pink/black star quilt. I can't believe I need to buy more fabric, but I ran out of black and I simply must have black for the last border. I am excited to see how the border I selected turns out. I am still working on the first border to finish off the squares. I will show you the completed top when I finish it.

I also made a stop at Kmart to buy some of my favorite lip liner.

It's Wet & Wild lip liner and it sells for just .99 cents! There are still bargains left out there if you just search a little.

My neighbors got back from a trip to Florida today. We picked up their mail and kept an eye on the house while they were gone. They brought us back a bag of Georgia pecans and some chocolate covered pecans. The pecans are double or triple coated in chocolate and were dessert for tonight's frozen fish fillet dinner which was lovingly prepared by my darling husband. He even made his own tartar sauce. I don't usually eat tartar sauce, but his was quite tasty.

Here it is already after 7:00 p.m. The night is flying by! I am off to sew a bit while watching old Andy Griffith shows.

I hope you all are enjoying your Friday evening.

It Started as a Small Project

I thought I'd just make 4 blocks to use as a throw on the back of the sofa.

Somehow it turned into twelve blocks and it's 3 ft by 4 ft long! So now I will just have to add a border or two and it will be big enough to curl up with a good book on a lazy spring afternoon.

I like the pink bandana fabric in this block that I made before going to work this morning:

The center is almost identical to the whole block.

I wish had more of that bandana fabric for a border, but alas, I don't. I guess I should make the border so it finishes the pink square. Hmmm....will have to think about the options.

Can you tell that some of the green fabric in the center is wrong side up? I didn't think it was very noticeable, so I left it.

I can't believe tomorrow is Wednesday already! Just three more work days until the weekend is here again.

I really need to spend some cleaning time in my sewing room. I have pink, black, tangerine and lime fabric pieces all over the place. Hopefully, I can get the border done by the weekend so I can put the remaining fabric away.

I've been thinking of my blog friend, Betty. She is in Mexico right now probably having a Margarita as the sun sets............ahhhhhhhhhh, doesn't that sound wonderful? I hope you are having a great time, Betty!

For all the rest of us who are shoveling snow in below zero wind chills, the best we can hope for is slightly warmer temps for hump day.

(just in case someone has never heard that expression - "hump" day is Wednesday -- the middle of the week -- getting over the hump....)

Good night everyone.

What a Difference a Day Makes

Yesterday I was wined and dined, with servers anticipating my every need.

Today I was the cook, the server, and the dishwasher.

Just look at this mess from my marathon cooking spree.

I guess it's not so bad when you consider I cooked enough for about six meals.



I made a pretty tasty dinner of spinach, beef and cheese-stuffed pasta shells.

The freezer has three extra meals of it and I made a big pot of chili for tomorrow and at least two other days.

I also made red velvet cupcakes for dessert. I am still in the Valentine mood and a red dessert just seemed to fit.

O.K. I confess. I used a cake mix. But don't they look pretty?
They tasted O.K., but not really like a good from-scratch red velvet cake.

When I wasn't cooking today, I was sewing.

Look at this pattern and imagine putting 4 of these 6-inch blocks together. What do you think it would look like?

Sometimes it's hard to visualize what the completed 12-inch block will look like when you see the pattern with no color.

I know you are just dying to see another quilt block, so I will show you.

1.5 hours and 74 pieces later, it became this.

It could have been put together in different ways, but I chose this layout and I love it. I do believe that my favorite part of quiltmaking is seeing the first block completed. This one will become a pillow.

I also finished machine quilting this one. It, too, will be a pillow.

I am really making progress and have almost completed 4 deck chair back quilts and 5 pillows. I can't wait for summer to get here so I can use them all!

What do Horses have to do with Valentine's Day?

Well, this year, for me, they were a very big part of it.

Early this afternoon we boarded a horse drawn sleigh that carried us through a pine forest, over a wooden bridge, and into an Elk preserve

until we were arrived at a rustic cabin nestled deep within the winter wonderland.

There is no road that takes you here. You can only get here by horse and sled (or walking).

Luckily it was over 30 degrees today. The guide was telling us that last week they did a ride at -4 degrees. BRRRRRRR...Even today (with gloves on) my hands were frozen by the time we got back from the one-hour elk tour ride. They do provide a wool blanket, but just one blanket for two people. You were supposed to "snuggle" to keep warm. I was way too busy taking pictures to snuggle.

Upon arrival my valentine headed right for the big fireplace to warm up before settling in for wine tasting and a 5-course gourmet meal which was cooked on two antique wood cook stoves.

Throughout the two-hour meal we sampled wines from a local winery. The samples were served in little shot glasses I enjoyed most of the five wines I sampled, especially the pear wine served with the appetizer of three shrimp and a pear/apple crepe.
The main course was Crown Pork Roast
and it was very good.

Here's the full menu:

Shrimp Cocktail
Pear/Apple Crepe
Hearty Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup
Sweet Nappa Salad & Butter Croissant
Crown Roast of Pork
Pan Roasted Red Skin Potatoes
White Chocolate Mousse Filled Pizzelles With Fresh Raspberries

In between courses, they talked about the Elk, showed craft items that were made from the antlers and even brought an antler around for us to hold up to see how heavy they were.

This one weighed about 22 lbs. Imagine carrying two of those atop your head!

Even the ladies bathroom was an experience.

Just look at how cute the decor is.

The whole event took about four hours.

This place was recently featured in an article in USA Today as one of the top 10 winter experiences (or something like that).

I loved it! It was the perfect valentine present. Before you go on about how romantic DH is to suggest this wonderful place, I must tell you that I was the one who suggested it. But he agreed almost immediately, so in my book, he scored points.

Here's me with Buster and Harley.

It was truly a Valentine's Day to remember (even if it is 5 days early).

Bucket List

Jean has tagged me for the "bucket list" meme.

Jean said, "there are no rules except to give your list of five things you want to do before you die, based on the movie The Bucket List."

Well, I am at a bit of a disadvantage as I have never heard of the Bucket List, so I went searching to see what it was all about.

When I found out that Jack Nicholson starred, I was immediately interested. I always enjoy his movies.

I found the plot outline: Two terminally ill men escape from a cancer ward and head off on a road trip with a wish list of to-dos before they die.

So what do I want to do before I die?

1. Retire. It would really tick me off if I died before I got out of the work force! I am a decade and a half from full retirement age. My plan was never to work until retirement age anyway. But then I didn't plan to work past age 40 either. Time flies by so fast.

2. I’d like to take more classes at the local community college. I LOVE learning. I already have two associate degrees from this college I am one class short of a third Associate degree. But I don’t even want another degree. Why would I need one? I don’t want to go to work again! I just love taking classes. The last few classes I took were computer related and I took them as an “audit” which means, I got no credit for them. I didn’t have to take any tests unless I wanted to. Auditing a class costs the same as if you were taking it for the credits. The advantage is it’s stress free.

3. Before I die, I want to have the freedom to waste time. Lots of it. That will come when #1 is reached.

4. I'd really love to, just once, tell a customer to go stay at a competitor's hotel! We all get a kick of out the customer from He**, who carries on about irrational complaints and then says, "I'm never staying here again." Just once before I die I want to clap my hands in glee and thank them profusely for not coming back. I must admit, I am laughing out loud right now just thinking about saying that!

I can’t really think of anything else I want to do. There are no material items that I long for. If I were younger, I would want a bigger house. But at this age, I don't want a mortage and I don't really want more to clean.

I like my life just the way it is. Though I would probably travel a bit, I don’t have any big travel desires, there is no foreign country that I am dying to visit, I don’t want to start my own business, I don't want diamonds, gold, or sapphires….

Basically I just want more time to wallow in pure selfishness. Time to do exactly what I want to when I want to do it.

I am supposed to tag five people, but you all know, I am not going to do that. If any of you want to, please feel free to do a post on what you would like to do before your time is up. It really takes some thinking to figure out what you want (at least for me).

Now I have a short term goal -- to rent that movie. Has anyone seen it? Is it worth two hours of my time? Because I am not quite at the point where I can spend productive time on a boring movie. :)

I sure wish Blogger would get that spell check fixed! Please ignore any misspellings.

It's always Exciting When the Library Calls with a New Book

I ordered this book 2 months ago and have been wondering when it would come in.
I had nearly given up any hope of ever getting it.

It's a book about wrapping gifts, called Presentations, by Carolyne Roehm.

I have just glanced through it, and will spend more time with it this weekend.

This chartreuse and pink package with dried flower heads caught my attention.

Imagine that pink wrapping paper being tangerine. It would look great sitting on the table on my deck this summer. Now who can I invite over on their birthday so I can give them a gift to match my deck quilts? Ha, ha....don't get the straightjacket out. I am only kidding. Although......it sure would be cute. July 26 is my Dad's birthday.........Hmmmmmmmm......I wouldn't rule it completely out after all!

Last night I turned that little 7-inch flower block into a big 21-inch flower-within-a-star block.
I made a little "oops" in it. That dark green on the bottom left sticks out like Zoey would in a Miss America bathing suit competition....Not a pretty sight!

I was tempted to just leave it because ripping out tiny stitches is not fun.

But I decided if I was putting this much effort into these babies, they might as well look their best.

So early this morning I ripped it out.

Oh, look at the book underneath. . . that ribbon sure does match...

Did you eat Paczki today?

A paczki (pronounced "Poonch-key") is a Polish donut. Eating these donuts on Fat Tuesday is very common in my town because we have a large Polish population.

DH bought a few at the local bakery and he seemed to enjoy them. I have never been fond of paczki, so I just took a tiny little piece and gave him the rest of the donut.

I have been spending a hour or so each day sewing blocks for my new deck color scheme. I get bored making the exact same block, so I ventured away from the geometric main quilt and worked on few other patterns. I don't know what they will be yet--either pillows or smaller quilts for the backs of the two deck chairs.
Here's my little pile of completed blocks.

I feel pretty good about my progress so far.

I haven't been in a writing mood lately so this paltry little post will have to be it for tonight.

Take Care,

Citrus Sorbet

Don't you think 'Citrus Sorbet' is a fitting name for this block?

It's for the main deck quilt. I am loving the geometric--almost retro-- look of this citrus-colored block. (If you are really an astute reader, you may be saying to yourself, "Gee, haven't I seen this block before?"

Well, since you asked, yes, you have. It's the same block I used for the pink/black artwork here.). It would take a gazillion of these to make just a small deck quilt to toss over the glider. Well, maybe not a gazillion. I could probably get by with 100 of them.

But do I really want to do that much work for a deck quilt?

I need to make a lot more than one quilt. I would need three other smaller quilts for the chair backs and a lot of pillows. If you are new to this blog, or don't remember the deck quilts, you can click here "Deck-or-ate" to see last year's quilt color scheme. I've used them for two summers now. They are still in perfect shape.

Oh, but I am so loving these new colors. Just look at sixteen blocks together.

I guess I will just sew merrily along until I get sick of it. If I end up with enough to do the deck, then I will. If not, this design would make a cool table runner.

Valentine Tablescape #2 --My Red Wine Glasses Arrived Today

They are more beautiful than I envisioned and they are a good match to the red/burgundy charger plate for my valentine table.
So I have removed the clear glasses. I put the napkin under the plate.
And Voila, here it is!

Oh, I also added my "LOVE" candle holders just because they are perfect for Valentine's Day.

Whenever I have candles on a tablecloth, I like to include a candle snuffer as part of the display. That way it's always handy to put out the candles.

I don't want to blow on them and have hot wax all over the lace cloth.

The glasses came in beautiful boxes. I had two cabinets sitting bare and needed to think of something to tie in with the table. I was pretty excited when I thought of using them for that purpose.
I used some of my Mom's crocheted doiles, a mini quilt, a pink magazine
some pearls, and a couple of pretty pink serving dishes.



I am thrilled to pieces with the new glasses. I do love it when I buy something online and it ends up being better than what I expected.

I can see where ordering online can be very addictive and hazardous to one's credit card balance. :)

Has anyone noticed that the spell check is not working on blogger? I noticed it last night and it's still not working today.