A year of travels

it has been a year of travel for me.

January 2010 took me to Washington DC

there i got to see Colin Powell speak.
do a little sight seeing.

& see Natalie Cole perform.

then the end of January was a trip to McCall for sewing & a mini trip to Boise to see my niece.

in March i went to a quilt camp at Palouse Divide Lodge - no pic of that.

in April i went back to Boise for more time with my niece.

also in April I went to St. Louis for work - no pic of that either.

in May it was the trip of a lifetime - all expenses paid - to the island of St. John in the US Virgin Islands.

on that trip we also sailed to Jost Van Dyke which is a British Virgin Island.

June was a month filled with doctors apts & several trips to Spokane.

in July a group of us headed to Sisters, OR for the Outdoor Quilt show.

i also went to Houston in July for work - no pics.

i was home the whole month of August except for the last few days when i made a quick trip to Boise to see DMB with my brother & SIL.

September kicked off with spending Labor Day weekend at the Gorge seeing DMB with Steph.

mid September i took a quick trip to Chicago to see DMB at Wrigley.

the end of September brought another quilt camp at Palouse Divide Lodge.

in October i went back to McCall with the Renegade's for another quilt camp.

in November it was back to Palouse Divide Lodge for yet another quilt camp.
December was a trip to Seattle to see Dave & Tim as well as a quick weekend trip to Boise to see my family there - no pics of that trip.

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looking back over 2010 i realize just how much i got to see & do & i am so grateful for the opportunities that my life brought me this past year.

i don't expect to be traveling as much in 2011 however right out of the gate in January i am headed to Dallas for work. March will bring a trip to Boise to welcome my new niece. July we will head to Sister's again. August to California for work. & i am hoping for some quilt camps scattered in there somewhere through out the year.

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up next

'A year of projects'

HO! HO! HO!

so Rachel over as p.s. i quilt wanted to know what happened on Christmas Eve. our Christmas Eve turned out sort of like something out of the movie Christmas Vacation. my brother & his family were in town from Boise so we were all hanging out at my parents house that morning when my brother realized that the refrigerator was spraying water out of the back of it all over the wall. my dad jumped up & they got the refrigerator moved & the water shut off only to discover that it had been leaking for sometime & the whole bottom was rusted out. needless to say an unplanned trip to the appliance store took place that morning.

once my parents were back we learned that the cabinets were going to have to be modified in order to get the new refrigerator in. not something you want to be doing on Christmas Eve when we had so much work to get done in the kitchen. so we went about unloading & moving the old fridge which we found lots of treasures behind like a ball that my brother had written on "Mike Is Rad" about 16 years ago. i guess my parents never moved their fridge in 16 yrs. then my brother & dad began the demo process of the cabinets above the fridge which entailed moving things from the cabinets next to them. nothing is ever simple with things like this for my family. the delivery men showed up & had the new one running in no time.

we re-focused on our kitchen tasks that needed to be done for that evenings meal & got busy. there was only a handful of us at my parents house for dinner since my brother, sil & niece were having dinner at her dad's house. now this is where the story gets good.

my sil's dad doesn't cook nor does his wife, however he thought it would be nice to have Christmas Eve dinner at his place so he got a prepared meal from a local grocery store. all he had to do was re-heat & eat. the 1st issue was that he didn't have a pan big enough for the turkey so he ended up going & buying one. the 2nd issue was that he had no idea how to use his oven. seriously, they have been in their house for 3 yrs or so & have never used it at all. the 3rd issue was that they had to skip church because he had no idea how he was going to get all the food re-heated & get to church. the funniest comment from that dinner had to be my sil's step mom saying 'if we stay in this house after i retire then we are getting a new stove'. my sil's comment back to her was 'why? you don't use the one you got." needless to say that went over like a lead balloon.

when my brother & his family got back to my parents house my brother asked for the Zantac & went to his 'office'. all that my sil would say was 'it was fine.'

my mother puts on the spread at her house for Christmas & Christmas Eve & still gets to church so we all got a chuckle from this.

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my guess is that Santa was laughing so hard from our calamity of a day that he dropped a few packages & if i would have to guess that the packages contained Parisville fabric because that is what i wanted for Christmas & didn't get any.

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on a side note: i did get a voicemail today from a gal in Iowa saying she has a package of mine that was delivered to her by mistake. maybe that is my package of Parisville fabric. i will be calling her tomorrow to find out the details. i live in Washington state so that is probably where Santa dropped my package at.........

In the blink of an eye.....

and in the blink of an eye.........

Christmas has come & gone & with it my family from Boise headed back home yesterday.

sad face.......

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we had a great time hanging out, catching up & playing with this little monster.

my 2 1/2 year old niece. here she is modeling her Christmas coat that grandma got her. at 1st she didn't want to put it on because 'its too pretty'. but then once her little friend got there she had to put it on & then wouldn't take it off.
she went & saw the Christmas lights in the local park which she loved & didn't want to leave.
she is at that stage where she will tell you 'no picture' so getting a good shot can be a challenge with her.
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this years Christmas was great for me. i got some quilting books i had been wanting, some gift cards to my favorite quilt shops and a Nook which i was totally surprised about. its Barnes & Noble's e-reader however its like a mini ipad because there is a ton of other stuff you can do with it. my SIL got one as well & we were like 2 little girls figuring them out.
we had Christmas dinner at my parents house with over 20 people there spanning 4 generations. it was a very fun & enjoyable time.
i hope you all had a great Holiday this year!!!

Christmas Song

i have been crazy busy with getting all of my holiday projects/gifts finished up & wrapped up. i think that by tonight i should be finished but since i am running on about 3 hrs of sleep i have no idea what tonight will bring. especially since i have family coming into town tonight & i will be there to see my niece. oh well, i can see the finish line & i will get there come heck or high water.

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today i have a video to share with you all. since i am a Dave Matthews freak i got an email yesterday from the freak, oh i mean fan club & it was a Merry Christmas message from Dave & this video of him & Tim Reynolds performing the Christmas Song in Vegas last year. i read that, hit play & about 20 seconds in i realized i was as that show. yep, my ace of a friend Stephanie & i flew into Vegas that morning, caught the show & flew out the next morning. awesome memories from that trip.

needless to say, this song ranks in my top 10 Dave songs so i thought i would share it with you all. i hope you enjoy it.

i have figured out my giveaway item so look for that post sometime after Christmas. i will also try & get some pics of my projects so you all can see what i have been working on.

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i wish each & everyone of you a Happy & Healthy Holiday.

Time Flys

WOW.......

time really does fly doesn't it????

i have got about 15 days worth of work to do & only 9 or so days to get it all done in. i am about to the point of what gets done gets done & what doesn't doesn't. i am sure you are all familiar with what i am talking about. some how life has a sneaky way of interrupting my plans.....

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awhile back Hip Fabric had a giveaway on their blog & i won. i got to pick 5 Parisville fat quarters. this is my 1st Parisville & i am completely in LOVE with this line of fabric. i am planning on adding to this stash with some Christmas gifts - we will see how well Santa listened to me. Thank You Hip Fabric!!!!

in my last post i told you that we did some shopping when we were in Seattle. below is some pics of what i got.

i love this color combination. i am thinking a bag with it. i found this in a quilt shop in Woodenville.

we then ventured to Bothell & it was an adventure even with printed directions we had to turn around about 3 times & finally call the shop for directions. it was totally worth it because I found 2 charm packs of Plume & some yardage. as well as the Pure print that i have been looking for - its going to be binding on a quilt. the other was a fun print in their sale section & again i am thinking bag.
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now onto some holiday related stuff.
another hobby i have is stamping which i mostly just make cards with. each year i make my own Christmas cards so i thought i would share it with you. two of my favorite things. moose & the color green.

i thought that they would be quick & easy to make. well, card making is sort of like quilt making. you start out with a plan & it evolves from there. it wouldn't have been too bad if i only had 10 to make but by the time i was done with 50 i was beginning to think i was stupid for changing my original idea. needless to say they are done & going in the mail today.
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last night after i finished up these cards i cut out a quilt that i will sew together tonight. its super simple so i am keeping my fingers crossed that all goes well. i will then need to quilt & bind it. i have another quilt awaiting its binding as well. i won't bother telling you the status of the other 3 quilts......
like i said lots to do. who needs sleep anyways???
check back to see my progress..........

Seattle onto Boise.......

i know that i have been MIA for awhile. first i took a break because of blogging everyday in November then i realized it was time to go Seattle for the Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds shows. so, now i am back but just for a brief pit stop. i went to Seattle with my BFF Shelly & her little guy. we had a great trip over, stayed with her parents & even did a little quilt store shopping which will be in a separate post.

NOW....... ONTO THE SHOWS

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Dave & Tim have never had a opening act before so this was unusual for them this time around. when Dave introduced them Monday night he said that he heard about this band from his doctor & now he can't get enough of them. usually i am not to impressed with opening acts unless its Ben Harper or OAR. let me tell you this band blew my socks off. i got home last night & i have already downloaded their album from itunes.

who are they you ask????

The Head and The Heart

from Seattle

give them a listen, you might like them.

Dave likes them so much that they are opening for him & Tim in Vegas this weekend.

Monday's show was great they walked on stage with these blue hard hats on. the audience loved it. i still don't know the meaning behind them but hey whatever.....

Dave messed up the lyrics in a serious song & ended up stopping about 20 seconds in laughing because of his screw up & didn't know how to get serious again for the song. so, they put the hard hats back on & re-started the song. we were further away from the stage for Monday's show so i am surprised the pic even turned out.

Tuesday's show we had center stage seats not on the floor but one level up. great seats which gave me the chance for better pics & video. the venue seats 2,900 so really there was no bad seat in the place.

the lighting was also pretty cool. i love this pic because of it.
Monday & Tuesday were my 7th & 8th shows for this year & my 40 something shows overall. the word is that the band is not touring next year, however Dave told a Seattle newspaper that a weekend at the Gorge is not out of the question. a sliver of HOPE is all i need......

we took this little guy with us. adorable i know. he wasn't like this the whole time but i couldn't resist this pic.

traveling back Wednesday was interesting on the pass, however it was just at the summit & we were glad that we left when we did because it just got worse.
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tomorrow i am headed to Boise to see my brother, SIL & niece. they are so busy when they come home for the holidays that i decided to spend some air miles & go have some 'me' time with them.
once i am back no more traveling until after the 1st of the year, but i have a heck of a lot of Christmas gifts to get finished up. i still have a giveaway to tell you about that i won & i need to do one here for my 100th post. at this rate it might be my 113th post.........

Happy Dance

i had to go to Spokane (100 miles away) today for some dr apts. my mom went with me because she had an apt as well. we left at 5:45am & it was snowing when we left. our plan was to make the trip there go to the apts & get home because of the snow storm.

this is in Colfax about 1/2 way there, still snowing & snow berms in the middle of the road. we made it to Spokane & the dr apts all went well. i don't have to go back for 3 months!!!! for me, that is a big deal because for awhile i was seeing them every 2 to 4 weeks. we grabbed some lunch at a drive-thru & headed for home.
we get to Colfax & this is what we see. not sure what was going on but we got detoured.

this is why we got detoured. a business on main street was on fire. major bummer for that business. once through Colfax i knew that the worse part of the drive was yet ahead of us.

the winds were blowing like crazy across the Palouse. this shot was taken between Pullman & Colton. more then likely they will close the road tonight because the the snow & wind.

lastly, i couldn't resist this pic. just outside of Uniontown we came upon a taxi going about 30mph & sometimes smack-dab in the middle of the road. my mom & i could not figure out what a taxi was doing out there & there was no passenger. my mom told me that my Great Auntie Grace use to call the taxi company & have them go to the liquor store for her & bring her purchase to her house. so, we thought maybe someone needed a liquor store run......

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last but not least its November 30th!!!!! i have been participating in NaBloPoMo which is National Blog Posting Month which means you do a blog post daily. i am happy to say i have been successful with this & i have posted every day in November.

HAPPY DANCE!!!!

crap

this evening i was down in my sewing cave working on some Christmas gifts & having a conversation with myself in my head. it went something like this -

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me - have i done a blog post for today?

my response - crap i can't remember

me - what did i blog about yesterday?

my response - crap i can't remember

me - i am pretty sure i haven't done one yet for today

my response - not a 100% sure but 85% sure that i haven't done one

me - what the heck am i going to post about

my response - crap i have no idea

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so, it was at that moment that i decided to post about what i am currently working on in the sewing cave. being Christmas gifts & all you get just a few pics of the gift in process.

amazing huh?????

i will show finished pics after Christmas of this gift. i think its so cool that i might just have to make me one as well.

oh, & with regards to me having conversations with myself..... that's just a normal thing around here.

Winner... Winner...

when Quiltmaker did their 100 Block issue blog hop a few weeks ago i hit almost every blog & signed up for a chance to win a copy of the magazine or whatever else they were giving away.

i ended up winning some fabric from Fabric Shoppe.
4 - 1/2 yard cuts of Far. Far Away II by Heather Ross.
i don't have any plans for it right now, but i am thinking maybe a bag for my niece.

i also won a copy of the magazine from Homestead Hearth.

Thanks to both for the great giveaways!!!!

this afternoon

this afternoon i decided to take a break from sewing to put up my Christmas tree. so i hauled everything upstairs & started un-boxing all of the Hallmark ornaments that i have. i have been collecting these since i was a baby so that means some of them are over 30 years old. most of them were given to me by my Grandmother who is no longer with us but Christmas was her favorite holiday so as i was putting them on the tree i was thinking of her - great memories.

so, in the middle of decorating my tree the power decides to go out & stay out. i call the power company who says it should be back on by 1am & its only 3:00 in the afternoon. so i pull out the flashlights & lite the candles & continue to decorate the tree. i found out that a book light clipped to the collar of my jacket worked real well. me being antsy called the power company again & they said 10pm now for getting power back. so i ate a pb&j sandwich & when i finished my dinner the power was back on so i could finish the tree with lights & do this blog post.

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another thing came to mind to share with you all while i was decorating the tree & that is my love of moose. yep, a little odd but i love moose. they are large animals that command respect & always beat to their own drum. pretty much nothing stands in their way except the occasional hunter but we won't go there. i have seen many in the wild & what amazing creatures they are. i have been collecting these from Lenox for 10 yrs now. not a good shot but i think i took it when the power was out.

another favorite of mine - i think my brother & sil gave me this one.
this one came from a friend in Spokane.
this was a package decoration one year.

this nativity set i keep out year round because i love it. my Dad found it in a gift shop one year in West Yellowstone, put it away for a Christmas gift & forgot about it. i got it for my birthday a couple of years later which is in July.

this one came from my Mom, she found it in an airport somewhere & hauled it home.

last but not least, remember i told you i had already gotten 1 Christmas gift. this calendar came from my good friend Barbara who every year gives me a moose calendar. it came in the mail earlier this week. Thanks Barbara!!!

i have a lot of other moose stuff that can be an entire post itself, however i do not collect just run of the mill moose stuff - it has to be unique & different.

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so, my tree is up & you now know that i love moose. sort of an odd post combo but hey that's me odd..........

p.s. - to those of you who helped support Modern Relief - THANK YOU!!!! they surpassed their goal.

2nd Gift & A Wish List

today is a 2 post day.

i got my 2nd Christmas present today. more on my 1st gift in another post. my cousin, Lynette a fellow RQ (renegade quilter) dropped these off to me at work. i normally don't open Christmas gifts until Christmas but she told me that i had to because she wanted me to enjoy them.

giant (5" across) lime green sparkly Christmas balls to use on my tree or hang in my front window at different lengths. you know me & my green thing. i LOVE them!!!!!

a HUGE THANK YOU LYNETTE!!!!!

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also, over at Above All Fabrics i have a wish list started. this is what i have on the list so far.

• Origins Fat Quarter set
• Parisville Fat Quarter Bundle - Pomegranate
• Parisville Fat Quarter Bundle - Mist
• Parisville Fat Quarter Bundle - Sprout
• Yardage of Mezzanine Tapestry - Lime

do you see a theme here with Parisville - its all i want for Christmas. i also love Origins as well as the Mezzanine line & i can always use some more lime green fabric.

Progress

i got all of the blocks sewin together yesterday & the quilt top laid out. rather then doing all pieced blocks i thought i would add in a few solid blocks just to make it my own. the blocks themselves came from Fat Quarterly's quilt along that they did.

i have stacked my rows from left to right & the used blue painters tape to write the row number on each stack.
my plan is..... tonight after work to get the rows sewin together & then then the top put together. i know... a lot of sewing but wish me luck.