A Lot Of Things

I canned fig jam yesterday. Of course I had to do "several" taste tests before the

 sweetness was just right!!!!! I just hope this will last until the winter months.

A Zipper spider has made her home right outside my garage eve.

Grandma's Lillies are in bloom. I was told last year that lilly isn't their correct name so let me know of the correction please.

Next I snapped a photo some sort of mushroom that seemed to have cracked open. I love  the blush color surprise inside.

Finally we've had a string of strong winds lately so imagine my surprise when I discovered  a bird's nest on the ground (no pun intended) the other morning. No eggs or babies, thank goodness!!

Put Down The.........

 See my new baby....it's the Kindle......my mom gave it to for me for Christmas.......OMG......I went crazy.....I mean absolutely C R A Z Z Z Z eeeeeeeeee........
Sewing......who needs to sew.........
Embroidery.....who needs to do machine embroidery when there's reading to be done!
I have had the hardest time putting the thing down........my girlfriend Kathy warned me but I didn't listen..........I needed help and quickly.  So I got out the old trusty timer, set it for 2 hours to read .......with the hopes of stopping when it rang off to do something else......like house cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, visiting with the little princesses.............Did it work, you ask?.........................
......................................Well...
......................................................hummmmm......
.................................................................................
....................................................................................YES!
.....................................................................................................I got busy!

I've been thinking about trying my hand at a BOM (Block of the Month).  It will give me a chance to practice my hand embroidery (I'm a true beginner). 
"Lazy Hearts" is a one year BOM project that is whimsical and a fun way to sharpen your skills.   If you'd like to join me, feel free!  I have placed a PDF (on my sidebar) for you to download ...... with all the instructions and patterns. Join the fun, why don't you.
My girlfriend Molly is hosting her second BOM......"Boot Bash"......make sure you check it out, as well.

Texas Wildlife - Adventure Awaits!

This year's TDA quilt block competition was eagerly awaited.  Several of my girlfriends and I have participated in years past.  This is the state of Texas Department of Agriculture's endeavor to involve quilting in depicting the varied aspects of Texas life, then and now.  This year's theme is about "wildlife," something I am well acquainted with as most of you know.

I chose the "bigmouth bass" and his habitat.  Also, my brother and I use to go fishing all the time when we were youngsters.  Mom never worried about where we were or if we were alright. We carried our German Shepard with us and my brother always had granddad's shotgun (some of you are familiar with it....right).  We'd spend hours sitting at the lake casting our lines, hooks wriggling with worms, watching snapping turtles sunning themselves as cottonmouth water moccasins slithered through the water.

Froggie Went A Courtin'

Create a MySpace Playlist at MixPod.com

This little guy is a small part of a new project I'm working on......sorry I can't show you more.  Anyway as I was experimenting with colors for him, it got me to thinking about when my brother and I were little.....now before you start thinking all kinds of weird stuff, like my experiences with insects and snakes......this is a good story.........LOL.

Mom was always exposing us to neat science, math, reading and music stuff.  One of our favorite 78 albums (no, I'm not talking about the year 1978) was of Burl Ives.  If you are too young to remember him, click on the above video to listen to one of the childrens' songs I grew up with and if you know exactly who I'm talking about, you'll really appreciate the memories the song will trigger!

Who remembers Burl??? I'd really like to hear from you.

Enjoy!

Happy New Year Everyone!

A toast to the wonderful past year and a new beginning for 2009! I don't do resolutions because it's hard to live up to them.......LOL......but I will say that I look forward to the swaps and challenges that I've entered and to those I'll probably join during the year. Toni (Mini-Booty Swap), Valerie (Apron Swap), Brenda (Postcard swap) and Jackie (Black/White Challenge) have been great hostesses and inspirations to me. The new swap that I'm participating in is sponsored by Holly. It's a magazine swap. Magazines such as quilting, knitting, to name a few are what this swap is about. There's still time to get in on the fun. "I can do this, I can do this," I keep telling myself. And you know, I can! My accomplishments of 2008 are my sewing log total for the year is 333 1/2 sewing hours roughly. I was very happy that Kathy suggested the log. It really helped me to sew or embroider when I was in a slump. I have gotten loads of good natured teasing about my little "crazy cat" so I'm changing him for something a little more non-spooky......LOL.....because I want to continue to keep up with the hours I sew. I've finished the tops to s e v e r a l challenges that the "Wackies" put on, learned to use my new Janome 11000 and of course and I did get 2 pincushions made. BTW, there's still time to enter that challenge on the WP blog. Plus, if you're feeling a little "wacky," join the Wannabees. They are a great group of ladies who really know how to have fun! Finally, I am learning day by day the ins and outs of blogging. I must tell you that I'm very proud to be able to "link" to a blog, link to other posts within my blog (Notice the word "several" in the above paragraph. Each letter is a link to a previous post), upload pictures, move things around and place "widgets" on my blog. I've still got loads to learn but that's part of the fun. I looking forward to this new year. Take care, everyone!

Aaaarrrrrhhhhh....Never Mind.....Hooray!

For several days I've been.....how shall I put this.....depressed, in a blue fog, my mojo went missing, I was really down, about to pull my hair out at the roots......why you ask???????? My wonderful new sewing machine was not communicating with my wonderful new "Vista" computer......very long story which I will not get into...........Aaaaarrrrrrrrhhhh, growl, gritting of teeth, bumping head against a semi-hard object!!!!!!

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Enter two very wise and wonderful "Wacky" friends....Molly and Annie....we met up at Molly's place around 9ish and deciphered, scratched our heads, crossed our fingers and our eyes, read the instructions again and again and again.....applied the "dongle" and........... by 2ish.....Voila.......I'm back in business......Thanks to my wacky friends.....It was time for a reward.......ice cream anyone???????

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When I got home, I tested my new designs on the Janome and everything ran smoothly.....so I decided to open my e-mail and what did I find but this wonderful surprise......It's the "Brillante Weblog"....Yippie Skippy.....Debbie awarded it to me. She's has told me that my blog is filled with interesting info about quilts, blocks, demos, music, links and wild stories about my life.....I am so happy and honored......Thank you Debbie! This calls for another ice cream treat.