Learning lots of new things

Oh dear Paul Thomas... What are you doing?

Don't tell me I have to share online time with Nora and now you too??

Yep, he wants to be just like his big sister and do everything that she does! Dress-up, soccer, computer games... everything!

If you have kids or grand kids, you may not have heard yet - but www.pbskids.org is a fantastic place for kids to learn all sorts of good stuff from all of their favorite cartoons! :) We love it!

Love from Texas!

Santa Clause is commin to town!

He knows if you've been good or bad...... so be good for goodness sake!

Love from Texas!

missing me?

Yeah, me too...

hanging my head in shame that it's taken me so long to get what I need to get done, DONE! :/


Love from Texas!

Love from Texas!

You know how I sign all of my posts and comments "Love from Texas!"

Well this photo of Nora shows exactly how we feel when we say "Love from Texas!" :) Here she is showing off her new necklace that one of my swappers included in their swap package especially for her! Thanks so much for making her feel so special!!!

Love from Texas!

I know it's been a long time....

I know. I know. (hanging my head in shame here). This has probably been the longest Blog Posting Drought I've had in foevah - but since about the end of September thru this month - - - it's..... just NOT been "NORMAL" for us here at home..... and sadly the twins are **STILL** wearing pullups despite my every effort to train them. Can I just go hide in a cave until they are using the potty like every other 3 year old in the world? :/

Trust me, I've not forgotten about my blog, nor have I ran out of things to post about - with a home of 3 kids, there's always LOTS happening to post about... LOL I've even emailed my blog account sevedral photos for future postings in the past month... just have not had the time to do anything with them. I know. I know. What about wordless Wednesday posts Bonnie??

I even missed out on the "Fall into Fall" blog hop giveaway things... I didn't even know it was happening until after it was over!

I'll try to share over the next week or so and make post dated entries - if you have me saved in your Google Reader then you'll see the new posts as they are published - otherwise when you visit just scroll back to older dates...

but I will share with you real quick some exciting news.... last night was 3rd Thursday ;) which means GUILD night!! :)

It was the night of our "Guild Garage Sale" and I had purchased a table for 1/2 price of the $5 b/c I was only setting up for the night meeting and not able to make it for the day meeting...

Anyone care to guess how I fared after my guild garage sale last night?? :) I counted up my earnings this morning after I returned from taking Nora to school...

Every time I've got a lot of loose change & dollars to count up, Kenny Roger's "The Gambler" Song comes to mind!

You gotta know when to hold em... know when to fold em....
know when to walk away... know when to run....

You never count your money, while you're sitting at the table...
There'll be time enough for countin..... when the dealin's done!

What's that? Now the song is stuck in your head too??? You're welcome! :D
So did you take a guess???

‎*giggle*giggle* DRUM ROLL PLEASE.......last night I made $303.70 at the guild garage sale!!!

I will say that when the coordinator Mona called the night before to ask me about setting up she asked if I had a lot of stuff.. and I said well... not really.. but I could be wrong.. LOL

I quickly told her a summary of my stuff and also told her about all of my 2 yard cuts of Civil War fabrics.... and she asked how much I was gonna be selling them for....

Yesterday morning, Mona had "slept on it" haha and called at 8:30am to ask if she could have first dibs on my CW's... and asked if it would be alright if she bought ALL OF EM! wow sigh unseen! So I made $260 before I even unpacked anything out of my van b/c she met me in the parking lot :) *giggle*giggle*

Mona made off like a bandit with these in her hands, and I made out pretty good too! ;) I'm happy to report that I doubled my investment from buying them a couple years back at Granny's Attic going-out-of-business sale.

While Mona was taking them to her car I started toting my stuff inside and thankfully I had been saved an empty table near the door for faster set up! My friend Kathy was sucha angel and helped me spread out my stuff while I stuck price stickers onto everything.

I didn't even get to get a photo of my table and stuff for sale b/c everyone paid my table a visit before the meeting even began! Talk about feeling like shark bait! LOL I had new stuff that they just couldn't wait to see! LOL I didn't mind b/c most everyone walked away with a purchase in their hands! :) Cha-CHING!

From the stuff on my table I made $43.70....... not too bad I suppose... but I sure brought back home a lot still. :/ a lot of work for just $43 - I ***WISH*** I had somewhere to donate what didn't sell??

Oh and after I was driving home, I got sooo mad at myself - for over pricing some things that probably could have sold had I not.... I spent days cutting and cutting up shirts thinking that since THE Bonnie Hunter was just at our guild in August and sold out of all of her "Scraps & Shirttails books that she brought with her when she was here.....

I had hoped that with her recent visit, that people would be interested in getting some shirts... right? well I cut and rolled up sleeves into "jelly rolls" looking bundles... more like "Sloppy Joe's" b/c they were not as neat and tidy as those jelly rolls you find at the LQS... but no less I tried to make them nice.... and had those priced at $5 for a roll of 30... good size and variety of colors.. I had 6-8 of those and also bundles folded up of the front panels without pockets... and other bundle sets with pockets... again lots of variety of colors... 40 count each bundle of the panels...

and b/c I ran out of time for folding and rolling... I had 2 USPS tote boxes full of loose sleeves for $0.10 each pick your own...

and... did. not. sell. a. single. shirt. part. or bundle. :(

bummer.

But even still I now have $303.70 in my pocket that I didn't have before!!! Yippie! I have to fork over 10% to my Quilt Guild b/c this was a fund raiser for them... but the rest of my Proceeds will go towards my trip next year to NC for the HGTV retreat! :)

no idea yet on how much change is in the cookie jar but I keep adding and adding as I find change and loose bills.... I'm getting there... and hopefully with ONLY cash to pay for my plane ticket, hotel and retreat fee and of course SHOPPING MONEY for Mary Jo's Cloth Store!!!!!! ;)

So does your guild ever host a garage sale among members? Have you had much luck? I'd love to hear about how you set up or the things you take...

Thanks for those of you who have checked in with me by email... I've missed blogging too and I promise to come back again soon and share what all has been going on in my life...

I'll have more time after I get my current scrappy 4 patch blocks swapped!!! You remember I hosted this in the summer... well I'm also hosting another one and they are all here in my house!!! ALL ....are you ready for this....

ALL * SIX * THOUSAND * PLUS Blocks!!!! yep, over 40 swappers all sent in over 6,000 blocks to me for swapping so I better get back to it... It's been a week and I'm working in tid-bits... catching 20 min here and an hour there....

wish me luck!!

Love from Texas!

the BIG 100 Thousand & it's paid for!

The van has been paid for since September and today I was almost home and saw it getting ready to turn over.... I let Nora get unbuckled to come watch with me - we were in our neighborhood after all :) and as luck would have it I had my camera with me!

I can remember being about her same age as Nora when my mom let me watch her speedometer roll over to 100 Thousand... of course my reaction wasn't anything like Nora's... her BIG idea was to park the car and not drive it anymore.... Mom let's get out and walk home so that it doesn't change all the zeros... and walk to school, and walk to church, and walk..... *sigh*

Love from Texas!

Wordless Wednesday 10/6/10

I ♥ our bedtime together time :)

Love from Texas!

Playing in the dirt seemed like sucha fun idea

This flower bed is over on the other side of the driveway and we have never bothered planting anything in there. Why bother b/c the cattle come up and eat the shrubs and make them look terrible!

So today David gave them permission to use their sand pails and shovels and have at it. I don't know why we didn't think of this months ago - it would have kept them out of the flowerbed along the house and then they wouldn't have messed up the mulch so bad.

They were having a ball! UNTIL.....

see that little frog statue beside Paul Thomas.... see that sand pile by the frog....?

FIRE ANTS!

Oh NO! Everyone outta the dirt!!! Stop playing! No more fun for you :( Daddy has to treat the fire ants and we have to stay outta this new fun area for the next day or two :(

But little sister didn't listen.... she SNEAKED back over to the dirt when we weren't lookin and stepped right into them :(

OUCHIE! :( She screamed and screamed, there were 5 or 6 bites at the most... where as earlier this summer PT had over 100 over his two feet and legs.

Can we say, "Does NOT handle pain well at all" You would have thought she was dying!

I had this and used it but could not tell that it gave her any pain relief at all. Although she did like holding the bottle.

Hopefully now that Olivia has had her first taste of FIRE ANTS she'll listen and obey us next time.

10/1/10

Love from Texas!

Beautiful Wallpaper Calendar!!

I found a beautiful calendar for my desktop from another quilter's blog: Cabin Quilter, Diane Tombal. Love it! Here is a picture of the calendar!!

I'm sure I'll have no problem remembering to download the new one each month!

Edited to add:
To set as your wallpaper, click on the thumbnail to make open in a window and then on the larger image right click and hit "Set as Desktop Background" and for me I chose the "center" option.

While visiting the Cabin Quilter's Blog I had fun going thru the archives of past desktop calendars that she has shared in the past -all 24 of them! CLICK HERE to take a look at them. They are all so pretty! ;)

Love from Texas!

Cookin with two helpers does not get the job done twice as fast.... trust me!

Found these two cutie cooks while looking back over old photos - This was taken last September when they both wanted to help cook... It's all good until they start trying to push the other out of the chair they're standing in. :P

Love from Texas!

Mini Peak

This year when Holee's Mini Quilt Swap for the fall rolled around I jumped right on board!! Only difference this time was I would be assigned a swap partner. ;) Although the due date is in the Fall (October) there are no restrictions = Any colors or designs... however, we could ask our swap partner 2 questions about their preferences if they liked holiday themes or if there was a certain color they rather not have.

My partner sewlove2quilt let me know that she la,la,loves 1930's fabrics! ;) So this weekend I'm happy to report that I just finished binding on the VERY SMALLEST Thing I have ever made in my life!

"Smallest Thing Ever"..........as in....
5.5" X 7" is what the whole thing finishes at measuring binding to binding.

and before the 2 borders the quilt top finishes at only 2 1/8 X 4.25"

it does look rather cute in all it's smallness but I'm really not pleased with my less than perfect blocks. Did I mention that there are 40 blocks each only 0.5" big!!!

I've already started making up a second mini that won't be so mini, so that I can hopefully hand quilt that one. and then decide which to keep and which to swap.


I can't show the actual quilt until after the swapping, but here is a little peek at the colors and things. Thanks to dumpr.net for the fun transformation of my peek pic.



Dumpr - Photo Fun

Ha-Ha yes there is some cutting mat right there in the center of the photo. ;) I purposefully didn't crop the photo so that perhaps that would throw off my partner :P I thought about sharing a photo of the back side b/c all the seams ironed open completely cover the blocks! I'm really impressed that I made something so small.

Of course I wasn't too thrilled with dear husband's reply when I showed him... and asked - What do you think? He took a quick look and replied "Nice potholder." *men*

Love from Texas!