sooner or later

Heard the pitter patter of footsteps across the floor, saw a rat the size of a cat running thru the room ... then I woke up and realized this floor is carpeted.

I dreamed someone had removed the shower curtain and I was taking a shower without it and no water was hitting the floor. Must have been because I was thinking yesterday that it was about time to take it down and wash it.... so I did today. Dreams are powerful incentives.

Then I got my hair cut. Just walked in to Supercuts after using my coupon at Hobby Lobby for Peltex and there was an opening with a stylist who has straight, thin hair so I figured I was pretty safe in her hands. She did just what I asked her to efficiently and confidently and I like how it turned out. The grill king commented on it positively. Another item crossed off my to-do list.

Dinner tonight with the kids to celebrate my daughter's birthday some more.

You never know when opportunity will smack you in the face. Wow, a new vehicle, a new job, the open road, I'm a very experienced driver ... exciting to think about.
You know I'd like to own a new vehicle and my loom would certainly fit in the back of this truck. Wish I could read that phone number....

I woke up this morning from a dream where I was sleeping out in the back yard of a grand house. The bed was beautiful, big and comfy. The tree limbs covered the bed like rafters except for the very middle where the moon shone like a silver disk in the dark sky. I woke up in my dream to this vision and then woke up again in my own bed.
I think I see a quilt in this dream.

Early to bed last night as I have been having wierd dreams lately and can't get snatches of them off my mind. One night this week I woke up choking and coughing. In my dream, I had been tossed into a lake and felt like I was drowning. I was really coughing from a dry throat and got up to get a drink before drifting back to sleep.

Then the next night I woke up from a dream where I looked exactly like Julie Andrews as Maria von Trapp and hearing someone scream at me, "just cut it, Diane." I don't think I'm getting my hair cut that short, but I do think it's time for a trim.

Off to empty a bobbin at the loom.

Lastest issue of Quilting Arts just came so I won't be doing any real quilting tonight just dreaming of quilting.

I musta been dreaming that I was retired and had no life. That's why I committed myself to so many things. And in the middle of a really busy month which was already shortened by our vacation. Next weekend I'm out of town, this weekend I have a birthday party (someone I know is five years old today) and then there's a work meeting on Sunday - we have to make about gross of felted olives. I have Valentine things to make and send. Meme things to mail out (Susan, yours is in flight already), ATCs to mail, and the Christmas Cwap to put away.

Just woke up in the middle of the night. Get your cup of coffee and come back - this is a long post. I fell asleep at nine this evening exhausted from about the best day in my life so far. Couldn't get back to sleep, so I'm typing my little heart out now before I forget everything that made it so wonderful.
The moon is full to bursting and it's bright as day out there. I want to go out and take some photos, but I'm resisting the urge. I'd have to concentrate too much and get out the tripod. LOL
Quilt show was just too perfect for words. I bought some things on my list that I wanted and didn't buy stuff for a million projects that I won't ever finish. My daughter J and I cried together on the way home. She is so dear to me and this is the best time of my life. My granddaughter is asleep downstairs. I spent the day enjoying my grandson and sharing him with the ladies at the quilt show. He was smiley and animated and only had one quick bout of colickey crying and another to let us know he was hungry. We ducked through the crowds on those occasions and found some lovely secluded spots in the bowels of the convention center so J could nurse him in peace.
My daughter brought the quilt I made for H and we showed it off occasionally. In one aisle a pair of ladies stopped at the stroller and talked about the fabric and they admired my quilt. We talked for a bit with them. One had found the bug fabric on sale and wanted to make a quilt for a little boy and couldn't get anyone who thought it was as perfect for a boy's quilt as we all agreed it was. I quoted the "snips & snails & puppy dog tails" and her friend laughed and said she had thought of that when she saw the fabric too. It's so easy to bond with strangers at the quilt show over such small things. I hope she makes up her bugs quilt and finds the right little boy to give it to.
We took time in the morning to make our selection of purses from the Hmong Pandau Needle Design booth - an annual agonizing decision. Too many beautiful choices. I am waiting in in line to pay for three, one for a friend who's admired the one I use daily plus one for each of us. This year's choice in tan with the wonderful handworked design on the flap. All of a sudden I hear my daughter say Sandy? And yes, it is her. I'm on the other side of a lot of ladies and a sea of purse so they chat for awhile. Sandy has the most amazing timing. I see her at all the pivotal points in my life, it seems. We've known her for years, she worked for my husband for a long time a while back but our paths only cross occasionally now. Once just before J's wedding at Sam's and then again, just after M was born and now at the quilt show. We chat until I get a call from Margaret and realize it's time for lunch already. Meet her in the lunch room and catch up on things with her. She's helping her mother with five family quilts that sound just wonderful and she's been doing some sampling on felting crocheted work.
We head for our hideaway spot upstairs for H's lunch break and I get a call from Karen and arrange a meetup with her. We've never met face to face - I tell her to look for a stroller and she finds us. I'm jealous cause she's taking classes at the festival and one day I really want to do that. We chat for awhile and then we all head back for more fun in the vendor area.
J and I cruise through the Journal quilt exhibit. This has been J's fav from the first quilt show we attended together. And I think this will be the last year they do this subject. I bought the book. She started to do the nine months, but M was less than a year old and she didn't get very far on the project. We really believe in the journaling aspect of the theme and feel that some of the journals displayed are just technique samples without any apparent relationship to the lives of the creators. Her pages were very symbolic and personal. I hope she tries the format again someday even if there is no venue for exhibition. She's good at it.
I take some more photos and buy a catalogue of one of the shows that doesn't allow photos. H likes the quilt exhibition better than the vendor side. The lights are lower and the aisles are wider and the quilts really capture his attention. He's good as gold as we cruise and talk about the wonderful artwork. At one point, Jean and I pause in front of one and we both agree it is not one of our favorites and H blows a raspberry. Only four months and he knows a good quilt when he sees one.
We missed the first two ATC trading sessions at ClothPaperScissors booth, so we make sure we are there for the last one of the day. We arrive early. We are the only ones. There are dozens stuck up on the booth curtain. We study them from a distance. She arrives on time and is sweet and admires my daughter's ATC as she puts a velcro circle on the back of each and adds them to the collection. Then we start asking her to bring us cards to look at closely. We only get to take away three. J is thinking we shoulda brought more and come back each time. This is so exciting. I squeal and say, let me see the eggs one, and yes, it's a Kelli Perkins. I take it. It's mine. J looks at a few, she's narrowing her choices down. We apologize for taking up so much of her time. Then I see an ATC with a face and I recognize it, too! Similar to this but smaller. It's a Terri. And it's mine too. I find another one I like, from an unknown artist! It's a free motion embroidery of a face in black on white eyelet lace. It's wonderful. The only thing better would be to actually trade face to face. We're hooked. We may have to do some ATC meetups.
We cruise some more talking about Christmas decorations. J wants to do some new things this year. She begins to refine her ideas and will make plans to add things slowly in a definite theme and color scheme rather than make choices based on what's on special at the show. We see one lovely fabric and find it's not available any longer but it helps her decide on what she will do for stockings. We continue the search for the cute mouse fabric we saw in a quilt early in the day. No one has any but there are some great deals on fat quarters. I get a stack of ultra suede squares in a variety of colors. She finds some things in the bead area for Christmas gifts. I don't find a sewing box for a gift for a friend.
The day is about gone, the sun is setting. We pack it in and head for dinner out with the husbands and M - who picks the restaurant - Olive Garden. It's a 45 minute wait. H is happy to laugh and hold Grandpa's fingers and M finds a friend in the crowd of people waiting. She can always find a friend. Her only fault is that she never meets a stranger. By the time, they are seated the little friend has come out of his shyness and smiles and waves and hands back the extra toy she's brought to play with. After we order, H begins to crank up, he's ready to order dinner, too. So J and I head for the ladies room. We've done this before. You have to take your own chair into the ladies room if you want to nurse. I am the nursing mother's helper. Fortunately there's room for all of us. I'm so glad J's still nursing H despite all the roadblocks that are out there. Back at the table, the soup and salad have arrived and dinner comes soon. Perfect timing. Everyone is happy.
I'll post some photos later.

Dreamed this morning of being at a party with my husband. It was a going away party for him. He was sitting down, I was standing beside him. Everyone was smiling and happy. They seemed to be the people he works with - his friends. I was fighting back tears and leaned down to whisper that we had to go soon or I was going to dissolve into crying. When we left the house where the party was, I noticed the neighborhood had few trees and there was a carport which is more common in Arizona than in Texas. There was only one car and his old truck parked there even though we had just left a house full of people. We left together. I was crying. I wonder where we were going and why.
It took me a while to remember this much of it. One of those early morning just before you wake up dreams. I classify this as a nightmare because I had to ride in his filthy old truck.