Happy Carving!

We're at the 'tween stage. We're 'tween grown daughters and no little grandkids yet so we do what we have to do. Here we have our youngest daughter Ashley. She's usually a sweet girl but in this picture she looks like a "Slasher". lol (Can you picture that sound from the shower scene of Psycho? Eee Eeee Eeee)

We don't even have a cool carving kit at our house. We just used old paring knives. "Slasher" carved her pumpkin to look like a little vampire. Our middle daughter Stephanie shared the good deal she found at her grocery store and brought over four pumpkins last night. That was sweet of her, yes? :o) But there's no picture of Stephanie because she had to bake cookies for work and stop at Target, etc. She practically threw the pumpkins in the house and left. She's one busy young lady.

Here I am emptying the ooze out of my pumpkin. Ewww...pumpkins are so squishy inside.

My photos are always out of focus when I turn off the flash but here's the front porch. Now we're just waiting for the little trick-or-treaters.

Hope you have a safe and chocolaty Halloween!

Cards n' stuff

My buddy Neena and her granddaughter came over to make cards and little spiders for Halloween. It always looks like such a mess when we get started. Eeek.


Neena has gone Frankie-crazy. Below is the little guy she made on a Milk Duds mini candy box. My oldest daughter loves Frankie so Neena left this for her. This guy is only about 1/2" X 1". I wouldn't have the patience for a small candy box. A small quilt block yes, a small candy box, no. Guess we have to pick our poison huh? :o)


Here are all our little goodies. The little buckets are from Target's dollar spot (2 for $1.00). They were fun to make so I think I'll send one to my mom and a couple of sisters, my surrogate granddaughter, etc.

Wicked....third time's a charm!

I thought going to the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood earlier this year to see the play Wicked was a chance of a lifetime, so I don't know what it means that I've been fortunate enough to go see it three times! This last time I got to go in style! My boss Donna, treated me and our part-time gal Becca to the play, plus we got to take our daughters. Now, having Becca's daughters and my boss's daughter go was great for them, because they're young ladies, but for the boss to include my daughter's, who are adult women, was above and beyond. They were so excited!! It was pretty amazing. Donna rented a Hummer stretch limo similar to this one. We met at her house. Wow!! Pretty cool huh? Here are Kelley, Stephanie and Ashley checking out the limo.

They don't let you take pictures while in the theatre but how am I supposed to post a blog without pictures??? So I broke the law and snuck this shot of the stage curtain. This picture is how close we were to the stage. Not only did we travel in style, but we were in row F. ROW F PEOPLE. lol That's 6 rows back from the orchestra! It was awesome!!

The show was excellent and we walked around the corner to get out of traffic and give the limo driver a place to pick us up. I took this picture of the Capital Records building to show you how nice a day it was. It was a beautiful day in ol' Hollywood. Ahhh, what a day! Check out the Wicked website and see if it's playing somewhere near you. You won't be sorry.

Two Posts in One Day?!!

Fellow blogger and swapping buddy, Michelle, is having a birthday today and she's giving away the farm! Okay, well not really the farm but some adorable patterns and goodies. Go to her blog (even though it will lessen my chance to win lol) and leave her a comment and she'll enter you in the contest. Good luck!

A Few Good Changes...

My hubby went to the Long Beach Veteran's Swap Meet in Long Beach on Sunday. He took the Chevelle to try and sell it. If it didn't go, we thought we would list it on ebay. A man, Mikael Bjork from Sweden, was here in California on vacation with his family for a month looking for three cars to take back home. Lucky us! He loved the Chevelle and made an offer. We have two other classic cars and the Chevelle has just been sitting. It's not good you know, to have a car just sit.....so off it goes to Sweden! Bye bye car. Bye bye Mikael! Cha-ching Richard! :o)

Now, I didn't get any of that "cha-ching" from the car sale but it didn't stop me from buying myself a little treat! Actually, I bought the treat on Saturday before the car even sold so there goes my theory for spending my share. LOL We helped our youngest move into a new apartment on Saturday. She needed shelf paper for the kitchen so me and the oldest daughter, Kelley, were off to Target. Kelley saw these BIG scissors and when she showed them to me, I KNEW I HAD TO HAVE THEM! How doggone adorable. It's not like I'm a tailor or something but they're so cute, they went right into the cart! Well, it IS a sewing room, after all!! Look how cute they look next to my big paper mache spools I got from my friend Sherrie a few years ago! Of course, they're the wrong size for my itty bitty chair that's sitting right there but that's okay. That's a mouse chair anyway!
I thought about hanging the scissors up here, where the quilts sign is but nah. I think they are better by the spools. And besides, they're kind of thick. I bet it would've been hard to get nails to hold them up.
I used some of that gummy stuff you can use to put posters on the wall to hold the "blades". It just dawned on me. Do these parts have names? Whatever you call the part where you put your fingers also has a small piece of the tacky stuff. That "should" hold it from falling if I have the window open and the Santa Ana winds are blowing like they are today or if we have a big earthshake! By the way, they measure approx. 23" tall!
Of course, getting this one little decorator item caused me to clean off the window sill, vacuum the floor, clean off the cutting table, etc., etc., etc. Argh, I HATE when that happens!

The Birthday Girls

Last night was our usual Thursday night sewing night. And instead of well, sewing, we celebrated birthdays. Some VERY belated and one early one. Here are Sherrie, Neena and Debbie getting ready to dive into the yummy dessert Sherrie made. Debbie's birthday was in August and Neena's was in September but for one reason or other, we couldn't seem to get together. Sherrie's is in a few days.

This is the dessert Sherrie made....lady fingers lined the bowl, 2 packs of sugar free vanilla pudding mixed with cool whip and put in the center of the bowl. In the center of the dessert she put the rest of the cool whip mixed with strawberries, raspberries and blackberries (I think that's what she said). It was DELICIOUS!!! And not too bad for us either. (The picture doesn't do it justice, really!) Oh, I think I need to make this. I'm having a craving!!!!

Thank goodness for timers on cameras. Sherrie's family had all gone to bed so I put the camera on a plastic cookie container from the bakery, on top of that a kitchen sponge, on top of that a jelly toy thingie just so the camera was in the right position. lol I even bought one of these slick tripods but forgot all about it!! lol Go figure!

After we filled out bellies, we went back into the sewing room and the girls openend presents. That's always fun. :o) This is what I did for Debbie. A Fall centerpiece and some decorations for her table.

Debbie and I went in together and got Neena Lakehouse fabrics that Neena has loved since they came out but we couldn't find them at any of our local shops anymore. I dug around on the internet and found some on sale. Woohoo. Debbie found the book with some ideas on what Neena could make and the vinyl project bag. Do you think Neena likes them?

And look at Sherrie. "Oooooo." lol We got her some quilty block stamps and a button punch. Neena got Sherrie and Debbie a really neat serving dish that you can add ice to so you can serve up salads, salsa and dips and keep them cold....so you don't make your company sick. :o)

And below are our hand models, showing off their Brighton charm bracelets that Sherrie got them. They are personalized with their initial, little cell phone charm and their birthstone. Very cute.

And in case you are wondering....my birthday is in January and I had a very nice celebration and didn't have to share it with anybody. I'm kind of selfish that way. LOL

Call the National Guard. I finished something!!!!!!!!

Well, that's how I feel! It takes me FOREVER to finish anything it seems. This little quilt is supposed to be a table cloth but I think I might actually hang it up. I don't know where but that's what I'm thinking. It measures 48 x 48" and I used some fat quarters I bought at Road to CA a few years ago. The pattern is from Honey Run Pattern Co. and that pattern is simply called Table Cloth Quilt by Jo Ann MacDonald. I quilted it on my Juki. This is what the back looks like.
I just used solid Kona white. I thought it would keep a vintage feel that way. I meandered the center panel and outlined around the scallop design, did 1" grid lines on the setting triangles marking it with my hema marker and my ruler, stitched in the ditch around the red polka dot borders and outlined the 4 patches. Then I decided they were too puffy that way and needed to be stitched down each one so I stitched around the 4 patches again going down the centers each direction. This outside design on the outter border....I don't know what that is. Kind of a feather/half heart. The border is so busy, you can't see it from the front and I thought it would be a good project to practice that shape. I'll wash the quilt tomorrow. i'm a little worried about that red rick-rack. It sure did frey when I trimmed it so it didn't show through the front.

Now where did I put those Christmas ornaments that I never finished last year????

Division 1, Game 1

Hubby and I were on the go again. We went to the first Angel game where the Angels played the Boston Red Sox. The parking lot was full, the sun was setting and it was a nice hot 98 degrees! Argh! Well, not everything can be perfect.
A little 12 year old girl sang the National Anthem and did an awesome job. We were in the nose bleed section but it sure gave us a bird's eye view of the field. And the tickets were free from work. No complaints here. The Angels lost 4-1 doggone it but it was just the first game. It'd be nice to seem them go to the World Series. I'll keep my fingers crossed. :o)

Cruisin' and Quiltin'

Saturday hubby and I went to Cruise for the Cure, a car show at the Orange County Fairgrounds with the proceeds to go to the prevention and awareness of Prostate Cancer. It was a nice day in the 80's. Not bad for a Fall day. My hubby got a little poke in the finger for his free prostate exam but he made sure to point out to me the line men waiting for the "other" kind of exam. I've been getting mammo's since I was 35 since my mom is a breast cancer survivor. I think all men should have to take the "other" kind of test just because! I wonder if we'll ever get to have a poke in the finger for our tests? Wouldn't that be so much nicer than going through the vise!

The snazzy car below is a 789 Chevy. I read that it's on a corvette chassis and the front is a replica of a `57 Chevy, the middle, a `58 and the rear, a `59. I did a search and it's a mere $135,000! That's the equivalent of a LOT of fabric!!! lol Doesn't do much for me but I'm sure there are men out there drooling over this one. Now let me show you the new sewing machine model I want. hehe...just kiddin'.

Being the good little wife and going to the car show earned me getting to stay home and play on Sunday. I must not have complained too much huh? :o) I got a little machine quilting done on my reproduction tablecloth. I just have to sew around these 4 patches and then I'm ready for the binding. Woohoo! I'm so excited. Seems like forever since I've finished a project.