sooner or later

So now she will sit around and be nervous until I take her to the Post Office for her flight to Australia. Her bag is packed, she has a hostess gift, a little money and her passport.

I couldn't sit and hold her hand while she fretted about whether this was a going to be an easy hop or not, so I went shopping.

Picked up a bunch of stuff at the dollar store for prizes for Art Camp. My daughter and I are in charge of the challenge this year. Thrums. You have to use 'em to make something. If you're not a weaver, thrums are the leftover strings when you've finished a project and are cutting it off the loom. There is about a half yard of waste at the end of the warp and it can be quite a big handful - always seems a shame to toss it out, so we are challenging the weavers to make something of it. It's long enough to stitch with, make tassels with, lots of things. You never throw anything away, right? so you know.

The prizes are going to be really neat. We got a bunch of stuff and we're going to.... well, it has to be a surprise. I'll let you know later. Even take photos. But you'll have to wait until March.

The other thing I'm working: ATCs to send out for birthday RAKs. I've already sent two out for the early ones, but these are getting a little more futz on them. Having a good time.



Waited all weekend to post this photo. Trouble in paradise. But it's all right now....

This will be cut into ATCs, the edges painted and some beads added. I rusted the lightest fabric last fall at Art Camp and then realized I had some great coordinating fabrics in my stash. I have some of all of these left and will make a small art quilt that will have more interesting elements - some day soon. In the meantime, I'm practicing quilting and keeping busy and finishing cards for birthday RAKs.

uh-huh, those are purple frogs, ma'am. Like this one..

And here's the dress I made from this fabric back in the day....
Never throw your favorite stuff away. You can make new stuff with it.

Here are the ATCs I'm sending out as birthday greetings. I now have a lot of scraps already to be made into plus-size inchies. I fussy cut out the frogs from the background. Why didn't I get this project done before the Quilt Festival - it would have been so much more practical than cutting inchies out of other fabric. Now I just hate to throw the scraps out because it is already spraybasted together but I can't save everything. I will make as many as I can tonight and then the rest goes immediately into the trash. And I don't want to hear about children in foreign lands who don't have enough fabric.

I have heeded the advice on ATCs and put rounded corners on these. I hate the messy square corners on my postcards and this seems to be a better choice. I also loved stitching the waves around the frogs.

The vote was overwhelming. Colored the rest of the birds. Thanks for your help. Sometimes I just have to fresh eyes to see the obvious.

Tonight we went to Steak and Ale and the grill king had prime rib roast. We almost ordered the steaks for comparison, but then he decided he knows how to do steaks so there was nothing to be gained. I should have had my usual rib-eye; the salmon was a bit dry though flavorful. Wished I had taken a photo of it, they serve it on a cedar plank.

Several things are perking on my back burners. I have a jar of pickles to make afterburners. More on that later. And I need a new bumper sticker. There is not enough reading material on my daily commute. Thankfully, we have few billboards and I know all the landmark business signs. I realized yesterday that there very few bumper stickers going by. Some window decals of questionable taste, of course. Must be that the plastic bumpers don't hold up to the weight of a label that size plus glue. I used to have a really cool bumper sticker that could make grown men wait in the parking lot to see who owned the car with that on the bumper. Lost it in a tragic fender bender. No one was hurt except the sticker and my pride.

This weekend I have to swap out some ATCs and mail them back to the players. And a meeting tomorrow morning which could have been fun since there's a pool where we're meeting, but the weather is going to suck so we won't be out there. Otherwise a quiet weekend. I'll probably clean house and the grill king will don his welding helmet and tongs to prepare lunch on Sunday.

The net connection has been dicey here lately. I am running now using an unprotected wireless connection - I think it used to be protected. I might have changed a few settings while trying to get it back up. Hmm, there may be some drive-by postings on our account....

It's been a tiring week. I'm needing a nap but it's too late in the day. The grill king is getting spun up for the evening meal. He will be wanting me to tell him how to do sweet potatoes. Anyway, been running around in circles lately.


The weavers' meeting was this week and once we got past the usual lights on now/lights off now/oops, lights back on now, thank you! business, we actually got to do a little needle felting. Never mind that there was a meandering attempt at summoning our creative inner being, a real lack of verbal instructions, very few inspiring examples and some unrelated slides, I actually worked on the little felted yarngoddess this morning and she's beginning to show some signs of life. I think a few beads and she'll be ready for prime time. More people might have stuck it out had they known it was a make it and take it evening.



Worked on some ATCs for a swap. February's theme was romance using a black and white color scheme. Those are done and ready to be mailed. I got our Valentine swaps on Valentine's Day. Very nice bags of goodies. J will get hers today.

I have an idea for the Birds round robin that I have to work on this week, but I'm going to have to practice and sample a lot first. I want to finish the blanket that is on the big loom and begin winding the napking exchange warp that has to go on next. I have been working on a collage book in a black photo album that I've been "saving" for a long time. I am going to use up all those interesting trashy little bits I have been saving and bringing home. I need to use it or toss it. The house needs cleaning. I need a nap just thinking about it.

Rain has slowed down. Ground is still muddy. Snap peas appear to have survived the freezing temperatures this week. More blossoms, no peas yet. No bees either - wonder how these are going to get pollinated?
Was going to just go to bed early tonight since we didn't go out to eat but I got involved in finishing another ATC idea. I have a photo of a really cool door which needed some tweaking to make it just right. So I fiddled with that for awhile and printed out all the parts and coated them with medium so they won't smear. Then I fiddled with another photo just for fun. I'm waiting for a white dog to appear so he can be added to the Dog on the Rocks.