Can you believe it's December already and almost Christmas? Black Friday was skillfully avoided by me, since I prefer to do my shopping in my jammies and scuffies with a cuppa coffee and my laptop. So today, Cyber-Monday, was my day to shop. Mostly for me. Don't tell anyone. I spent a few bucks at Jamberrywhere I bought a couple of bottles of
Beauty Boost - which is a multi-vitamin formulated for nail strength, etc. I started using it a couple of months ago and my nails have stopped splitting and peeling! I give them quite a workout and I highly recommend this stuff! I also bought a new hoodie, for no particular reason other than it was cute and colorful. I might give it to Gillian for Christmas. No photo, in case she stops by my blog... Oh! One more thing before I go. I ran down to the retreat a little while ago to see what one of my favorite groups was up to. Some artsy quilt stuff, some charity zippered bags, a jelly roll race, some actual quilting, the cutest panel ever... and when I walked into the living room I saw this: Father Christmas doing heaven knows what with Santa'sHelper! She's apparently one of the quieter members of the Out of Bounds quilters, and didn't look too thrilled to have him checking out her ensemble. See, Shirley - I'm taking good care of Father Christmas!
Hope you all have a Merry Christmas, and enjoy the last one-patch calendar of the year. Finally.
Click to expand the image to full size, right-click and choose Set as Wallpaper or Background.
To really make the calendar "pop" right-click on your background and choose black. Your family and co-workers will be jealous of your awesome wallpaper! Be sure to tell them where you found it!
It's 5 minutes to midnight on October 31st, so I've got plenty of time to show you a picture of the South Carolina grandkiddos in their Halloween costumes: The Ghostbusters and the StayPuft Marshmallow Man! Aren't they adorable??
And Sofie was wearing her Halloween glow in the dark nail wraps byJamberry!
Now that all the little zombies are in bed, it's time for two things: an adult beverage and the November calendar - enjoy!
Click to expand the image to full size, right-click and choose Set as Wallpaper or Background.
To really make the calendar "pop" right-click on your background and choose black. Your family and co-workers will be jealous of your awesome wallpaper! Be sure to tell them where you found it!
The other day, after I gave myself my Kaffe-esque Jamicure - not to be confused with Kafkaesque, as in: "pertaining to the literary work of Franz Kafka, i.e. marked by a senseless, disorienting, and menacing-like quality" which would be more like this:
Wouldn't these be awesome for the Zombie Apocalypse?? Just in time for Hallowe'en.
You're welcome.
(comma... pause to think where I was going...)
Oh. So after I gave myself a Kaffe-icure, I got all hung up on that calendar from back in Mayand started to play with it again in EQ7. I used the Swap Tool to quickly change each of the original fabrics to a new palette of fabrics looking more fall-ish. That took all of 37 seconds. I've seen lots of hexie quilts that have recognizable images in them, so I thought I'd try something simple like a pumpkin. With a vine. That took almost an hour. Good God. I'm beginning to hate one-patch quilts. I've never actually made one, but I have made about 3 dozen 1/4" hexies, mostly while traveling by air, accompanied by a Tanqueray & Tonic.
See that bobbin and needle? I'm not lying! 1/4" hexies. Don't. Just don't.
Anyway - here's the quilt I came up with. If you squint real hard, you'll see the pumpkin. If you're lucky. Or if you've had enough to drink. Wait. Maybe that was my problem. Oh well.
Click to expand the image to full size, right-click and choose Set as Wallpaper or Background.
To really make the calendar "pop" right-click on your background and choose black. Your family and co-workers will be jealous of your awesome wallpaper! Be sure to tell them where you found it!
I found myself with a few extra minutes today, so I gave myself a new Jamicure. You know - the vinyl nail wraps by Jamberry!
I hardly get to sew (much less quilt) anymore, so I thought I'd use my latest "quilty" Jams for my latest Kaffe-icure!
But first...this is why I don't just use polish. I am so not coordinated enough to not get it everywhere. No matter how careful I am, or how much time I take, I still end up looking like a 4 year old did it. And that's just embarrassing. Actually, I think a 4 year old could have done a better job.
I've never been a manicure-type girl. As a matter of fact, I've had two manicures in my entire life: when Megan got married, and once, when I was on a retreat at the Compass Center. I've always had super short nails, cuz I work hard, play hard (ok, on the piano), and I...I... well, I was going to say clean hard, but that'd be a lie. But I supervise!
Since I don't have a lot of time to play the piano anymore, I've been attempting to let me nails grow... hahaha - typo - I sound Irish! I mean MY nails grow! Just so I could have some fun with wraps. They last much longer than polish ever did, and they actually keep my nails from chipping and splitting.
Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah. Right on top of my hideously messy polish, I applied my new jams: Happy-Go-Lucky and Nepal Relief. Together, they look like they're straight out of a Kaffe Fassett quilt - and I love them! Here they are with a backdrop of Kaffes. I know, right?? (And Spoelker - I know you're jealous!)
And see the ones right above my hand? Those are the ones my daughter Megan had made from my May Desktop Calendar
I designed it in EQ7 and when she saw it, she asked if she could use it for an exclusive Nail Art Studio design for Jamberry. They came out great! If you'd like your own set, they're only available through Megan - and tell her I sent you!
She also did a set of gradated teal chevrons to match this fabric - cool, right?
And she put these together, too, so you can only get them from her:
Jamberry also has quite a few wraps that look quilty or crafty like these:
Any of the wraps that are on a clear background (like the one above), can be layered over other wraps or nail polish, so you can have them be any color you want! Like these. I layered a black and clear design wrap over a gorgeous glittery one - and it's awesome - see?!
There's a ton more on the Jamberry website, so go take a look. We could start a whole movement of quilty nail wrappers! And if you have a design you'd like to see in a wrap, just ask Megan. She'll be happy to work with you to totally customize yours and make them truly one-of-a-kind!
And did I mention that each sheet of regular wraps are only $15 (and Megan gives a "Buy 3, Get 1 Free" deal) and there's enough on the sheet for two (2) manis and pedis. You can not get a better deal for your nails than that!
And tell Megan you heard about them here. Maybe she'll give me a discount next time!
It's September and after the long, hot, Texas summer, I'm so ready for fall! Who am I kidding? I know the cooler weather won't be coming for another 6 weeks or so. But until then, I can finally cool off the way I've wanted to all summer:
So far, there's a limited number of flavors available, (mostly vanilla, chocolate and a couple of others), but that's ok, Homemade Vanilla's my favorite anyway!
In between bites I've been working on the calendar for September. These one-patches are not easy - mainly cuz I'm running out of ideas on how to color them!
So here's September's calendar - enjoy!
Click to expand the image to full size, right-click and choose Set as Wallpaper or Background.
To really make the calendar "pop" right-click on your background and choose black. Your family and co-workers will be jealous of your awesome wallpaper! Be sure to tell them where you found it!
We brought Andy home from rehab today with hospice, so it's been kind of hectic and a little bit overwhelming. He wasn't making any progress after 3 weeks and they felt it was just making him anxious, so we decided it would be best for him to come home. Next week we'll start having twice weekly visits from the nurse and thrice weekly visits from an aide. That's the one I'm looking forward to seeing. Often.
Then, to slap a little icing on that cake, we discovered there are squirrels in the attic at the cabin! Apparently, they'd made themselves a nice little home up there. After MJ thought he'd gotten them out and sealed up the hole in the eaves, it turns out he sealed one or two in. Ask any A/C repairman what it's like to work in an attic in the Texas summer, and you'll figure out that the little varmints won't last long in that heat. And they didn't. They started to cook. Ugh. Sent the boy back into the attic this evening to search and destroy. Which he did. So. We're done with that. I hope.
This month's calendar is a one patch of tumblers, inspired by the Texas sun and Bonnie Hunter's
If you wanna dig into your mountain of scraps, this would be the perfect time. Crank up the a/c, grab some ice tea, and start cutting your tumblers!
If not, that's ok, you can still enjoy a hot, sticky, Texas summer tumbler one-patch on your desktop for the next 31 days!
But first, a word from our sponsor:
Click to expand the image to full size, right-click and choose Set as Wallpaper or Background.
To really make the calendar "pop" right-click on your background and choose black. Your family and co-workers will be jealous of your awesome wallpaper! Be sure to tell them where you found it!
Have you ever started out to do one thing, then got distracted and done another? And another? And then wondered what the heck you were supposed to be doing?
No?
Liar!! If you're over the age of 40, you know that's the truth!
So tonight I started to work on the calendar at 7:40pm Central Time. By that, I mean I opened up my Mac and clicked on Parallels (the Windows emulator software I use to access my Electric Quilt 7 program where I design the quilts for my calendar). While I was waiting for it to load (which takes for-flippin-ever), I went to check my emails.
Got one from my sister. Talking about where we grew up in Park Ridge, IL (along with Hillary, apparently. I don't want to talk about that.)
Anyway. Then I got to thinking about all the places we used to walk to from my Gramma's house. Like to the Pickwick Theatre in downtown Park Ridge. A quick search on Google Maps told me it was 1.9 miles. And then, by clicking on Street View, I was able to actually trace the route we used to walk.
Here's my Gramma's house, a cropped screen grab from the Google Street View. Our bedroom (we shared a double bed till I was about 8 or so) is the second floor left window.
And here's the Pickwick Theatre, in all its art-deco glory. Beautiful architecture inside with lots of tile and ornamental wood. And as I recall, it was only 50 cents a ticket.
Then I decided to walk the same route I took in high school to get from our duplex in Arlington Heights to my piano teacher's studio downtown, about 1.9 miles away. (Again, Google? Was everything 1.9 miles away from me??) We lived in the right half of the duplex, and I remember sketching that tree for one of the weekly art assignments as a sophomore in Miss Akers' class. She gave us one (1) piece of oatmeal drawing paper on Monday, and we had to come back with a finished pencil drawing of whatever she assigned, on Friday. I usually waited till Thursday night to do it. Go figure.
Here's Mr. Matteoni's old studio - a 2nd floor walk-up in that brick building. When he was dying of brain cancer (in '96, I think), he turned over his studio to a former student, who still runs it. Mr. Matteoni was the closest thing I ever had to a father, and I loved him for teaching me and encouraging me to major in music at DePaul. We kept in touch for all those years. And he'd call me every year at Christmas just to talk. I've even saved his letters. He was such a sweet man. Every so often I still cry over him. Wow. That got mushy real fast!
Holy mackerel! I've wasted 90 minutes already. Damn that Google maps thing!
Back to designing the quilt calendar.
Right after this:
I just remembered tonight's the night Venus and Jupiter are supposed to be so close together they'll seem to be one big star - as big as the moon. Have to go look. Wait right here!
...time slowly passes...
Well crap. Drove about a mile down the road (not 1.9 miles LOL), to the clearing in the big pasture.
Nada. Too cloudy. But here's a picture of the moon through the trees at my house. Just pretend it looks like the Star of Bethlehem.
So where was I...oh yeah. I still have an hour and 15 minutes, so I'm good. Hey! Did you see 5 year old Heavenly Joy on America's Got Talent tonight? Shirley Temple reincarnated. What a cutie-pie!
11:02. Need to get a move on. BRB.
How about another one-patch with Kaffe fabric? I like that.
Hang on. It's 11:23pm and my son-in-law in South Carolina is calling. Emergency?
No. Job/career issues. Good. That I can deal with. Still working on quilt while we talk.
Midnight. Still on phone, but I've finished the calendar. And it's only 22 minutes late. Have at it, folks!
Click to expand the image to full size, right-click and choose Set as Wallpaper or Background.
To really make the calendar "pop" right-click on your background and choose black. Your family and co-workers will be jealous of your awesome wallpaper! Be sure to tell them where you found it!
It's 11:32pm Sunday, May 31st, and I was seriously considering not doing a calendar at all. I cannot begin to tell you how exhausted I am, and frankly, the blog, the calendar, my quilting, aren't anywhere near the top of my To Do List these days. As some of you may know, Andy, my husband of almost 40 years, is in severely declining health. After 4 strokes and an aneurism, he's been diagnosed with Parkinson's Plus (yes, that's a thing - and not as good as you'd think considering the "plus") resulting in general loss of faculties, abilities, coordination, cognizance and memory, with the addition of dementia and hallucinations. Turns out that's the "plus" part.
Some days he's on an airplane, some days he swears that Donald, a childhood friend, is living with us...I never know where I'm going to find him or who he's been talking to. It's very strange, very sad, and very labor intensive. Sometimes it's funny and I can't help but laugh and just go with it. A couple of weeks ago, I walked into the bedroom after he'd been in bed for about an hour, and I kicked him right in the head. (That probably doesn't help his condition any, but at least I wasn't wearing my orthopedic nun's shoes!) He was on the floor, with no recollection of how he'd gotten there. Got him back into bed, left the room shaking my head and made a quick gin & tonic nightcap. Fifteen minutes later I went in to get ready for bed and he was kneeling by the bed with his arm and head wedged firmly between the mattress and the little guardrail on the side of the bed.
"What are you doing down there??"
"I'm stuck."
"I can see that - what are you trying to do?"
"The captain said for everyone to get out on the right side of the plane, and I got stuck."
Hmmm...wonder what that's about. Got him up on the side of the bed and turned on the lights.
"Do you know where you are?"
"Tomball!"
So far, so good...
"Where in Tomball?"
"On the PLANE!"
There was no convincing him that he wasn't on a plane, so, as I tucked him back into bed, I said, "Well, the captain said to stay in your seat until the plane lands in the morning."
And he did.
The next morning, he remembered the incident but couldn't figure out how the plane landed in the bedroom. It's big, but not that big!
Anyway - Andy's health has been on the decline for the past 5 years, and has gotten steadily and more rapidly worse, this past year. No matter my intentions, I only finished one (1) customer quilt in all of 2014, and halfway through 2015, it doesn't look like I'm going to beat that record. That's also the reason the blog has deteriorated into a once a month 'calendar' post - and that's it. I can barely force myself into that little bit. No time, no energy, no desire. My days are consumed with taking care of my husband and trying to manage the million-and-one things that have to be done.
All that, to say this: If I miss a calendar in the upcoming months, you'll know I just couldn't squeeze one more thing into my day. I'm still here - I'm just keeping my head down trying to make it through the day.
Now that the rains in Texas have slowed down a little bit, I've been watching the Virginia Creeper vine outside my bathroom window grow by inches every day. It's like 1962's The Day of the Triffids. IMDB it, if you don't know what that is. That vine is the inspiration for this month's calendar, still all in hexies:
Click to expand the image to full size, right-click and choose Set as Wallpaper or Background.
To really make the calendar "pop" right-click on your background and choose black. Your family and co-workers will be jealous of your awesome wallpaper! Be sure to tell them where you found it!
And if you've got room on your prayer list, and your knees can take it, please remember us.
I almost didn't make it this month. Thought I had one more day before I had to really knuckle down and get on the May calendar, but today I noticed that April only has 30 days (by actually looking at the calendar on my desktop)! Go figure.
This year's decision to only make quilt calendars with one-patch designs is turning out to be a lot harder than I thought. I don't think I thought this through on New Year's Eve...
My friend Debbie is all agog with Kaffe Fasset fabrics as well as hexies, so this one's for her!
Click to expand the image to full size, right-click and choose Set as Wallpaper or Background.
To really make the calendar "pop" right-click on your background and choose black. Your family and co-workers will be jealous of your awesome wallpaper! Be sure to tell them where you found it!
I've been Pinteresting a lot lately, mostly to kill time while I avoid doing all the things on my To-Do List. Don't you judge me - you do the same thing! It's like sitting on the sofa eating bonbons and reading movie magazines, as my grandmother used to say. But come on...why not? I've earned some down time with the year I've had. Oh stop. I know it's only April. Doesn't bode well for the rest of the year. So anyyywayyyy... While I was scrolling through pages and pages of perfect Pinterest Easter goody ideas, I found a whole page of Easter Treats - Easter Egg Oreo Truffles, fluffy Bunny Tails, Easter Bunny Pancakes, Spring Confetti Bars, Easter Rabbit Racecars, Easter Bunny Trail Mix....mmmmm....what shall I try first? Wait. What's that? Down at the bottom of the page. The left side. Is that....Brussels Sprouts??!!
Good way to ruin the sugar vibe I had going. Hang on while I go suck on a sugar cube. There. That's better.
Yum! And easy, too! Maybe I'll make up a couple of batches and send an Easter Bunny surprise to the grandkiddos in South Carolina. If it turns out. And if I don't eat it all while I sit on the sofa Pinteresting.
Addendum April 3: And here's my Easter popcorn - delish!
And before I forget - here's your April calendar!
Click to expand the image to full size, right-click and choose Set as Wallpaper or Background.
To really make the calendar "pop" right-click on your background and choose black. Your family and co-workers will be jealous of your awesome wallpaper! Be sure to tell them where you found it!
This has been the strangest winter I can remember in our nearly 40 years in Houston. We had lows in the low 30's this week, and that should have been all over with 2 weeks ago. Winter has never come and gone and come and gone and come again like this. But, as I suspected last month, a freeze did indeed turn a good many of my camellias brown. But new ones are opening so there's that. And one lonely pink azalea blossom showed up. And a few daffodils. But that's it. I'd like to have a word with Algore about that global warming thing. I'd probably have to get in line behind the entire eastern seaboard, though. OAN... I may have painted myself into a corner with this 12-months of one-patch calendars idea...don't know if I'll actually see this through. After 3 months of individually clicking on and coloring all those hundreds of little patches, and changing every little patch again cuz the colors are hideous, and again cuz MJ says they're uglier than sin, (and we all know that a 23 year old young man is all about critiquing my calendars - or he may just have gotten tired of all that stupid clicking), I'm ready for a nice 9-patch and snowball quilt. But for now, you can have this one. It may still be ugly, but I can't tell anymore, since my eyeballs are numb. You have been warned.
Click to expand image to full size, right-click and choose Set as Wallpaper or Background. To really make the calendar "pop" right-click on your background and choose black. And if anyone asks where you got this calendar, point them in my direction!
I don't know if y'all are familiar with how the seasons work here in Houston, but last week it was so cold in my kitchen, I was warming my hands over the stovetop to keep my fingers from turning blue. That was winter. Just the 3 days. Right now, it's drizzly and dreary but look! Spring has sprung!
These gorgeous camellias are weighing down the branches of the giant 8' tall bush/tree in my front yard. It is absolutely filled with hundreds of pink, ruffly blooms. That can only mean one thing: we'll have one more hard freeze so they all turn brown and fall off. Then we'll have the 3 weeks or so of spring, followed by 7 months of summer. Yeah. That's how it works in Houston.
Anyway - here's your special Valentine's Edition of your desktop calendar - a one patch of "kites." Jarringly, blindingly, bright, Hope you don't mind!
Click to expand image to full size, right-click and choose Set as Wallpaper or Background. To really make the calendar "pop" right-click on your background and choose black. And if anyone asks where you got this awesom-o calendar, point them in my direction!
So 2014 is over, and I, for one, am looking forward to 2015...not necessarily anxiously, but more like guardedly optimistic about the year ahead. (Attention Grammarians - please don't start my new year off with correcting that sentence. Have pity on me and 1) my cold, 2) my 3rd glass of champagne, 3) my lack of sleep, or 4) my total disinterest in language arts at the moment. Or all of the above. Except for the 3rd glass of champagne. It's my 4th. And it's Moscato Asti. Happy New Year to me! And to you! Lately, I'm kinda into hexagon and other one-patch quilts, so I'm thinking that this year's calendars should all be some sort of charm-type quilt. We'll see. I might get bored in a few months and change my mind. But my New Year's Resolution is to stick with my commitments - at least for January! Wish me luck. My other New Year's Rez is not to be too hard on myself when I blow it. I think we could all use a little more 'grace' in our lives. We're all going to fall and fail. Leave the judging to outside observers and be gentle on ourselves. We not only need it - we deserve it. Here's to new starts, halting steps, perseverance, and getting up to try again.
Click to expand image to full size, right-click and choose Set as Wallpaper or Background. To really make the calendar "pop" right-click on your background and choose black. I'll be back in a few - in the meantime, enjoy your desktop calendar, and accept my best wishes for a happy and prosperous New Year!
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