Bitty Birthday Bonanza! What a surprise!

 Yesterday was my birthday and I got the most wonderful surprises in the mail!  I received quite a few cards from friends and relatives, which was lovely.  Unbeknownst to me, my friend Kimmie at Flickr organized a bunch of mostly bitty blockers to each make me a birthday bitty.  She had them all send them to her and then she put together a box and mailed them to me, along with one other box from another, so 2 boxes.  Her timing was perfect as the 2nd box arrived on the exact right day and I had saved the first one to open on my birthday because I am a good girl like that, no matter what you think! 

I couldn't believe it when all the stuff started being revealed from inside the boxes!

 I've labeled each block as to who made it, at Flickr, on my photostream, if you're interested in knowing. 

 I was stunned, shocked, thrilled, giddy and all sorts of good things, I never expected this or dreamed it would happen, it was such a fun surprise!  I also got a lot of lovely notes and cards and even some other gifts!

 This is an overview of all the loot! Fat quarters of fabric, a pincushion that looks like a Frankenstein mouse, a Twisted sticker, rainbow star stickers, birthday candle glasses, happy birthday beads, a Rosie the Rotary Cutter panel, printed twill tapes, a tiny purse change purse, magnets, ribbons, mints, candy, jacks, even dried LARVAE or worms, but it's OK, they're BBQ flavored.  No, I won't be eating them!  Ew!  That Kimmie!  I just loved everything, except for the worms!  LOL

 And some close-ups.....

 So much fun stuff, I couldn't believe it all. 

 I can't believe the generosity of all my friends!

I had a great day, a very busy one.  I drove to town and got a haircut, then I went to a laundromat and washed and dried 2 comforters and 2 shams, (I had the place to myself, it was peaceful and different and I got to read my book), went to the library and got more books, saw my parents where my mother deadpanned "you know you're a senior citizen now.", much to my horror.  55 is a senior citizen, really?  Crap!

Then I went to the grocery and got some things and came home for a late lunch, Greek Salad.  We had fun with all the mystery stuff in the boxes in the afternoon and had a nice London Broil and salad for dinner, topped off with strawberry shortcake for dessert.  What a great birthday!

Many many thanks to all my friends and family for making it such a fun, memorable one! 

Scrappy Mug Rug Swap- The Holiday Edition- Completed!

I got the most wonderful package in the mail from my friend, Friedazzzzz, in TX. She not only made me one mug rug, she made me 2! And one of them has Nosey Parker on it, isn't it adorable? She's under a tree, with a mouse and some presents, I just love it. AND she included a coordinating mug and a hanging, twisty penguin, such a wonderful and cute set!

The other mug rug is also exquisite, the ornaments on it are pieced and just so perfectly, too! I just love this whole set and my husband was marveling at it, "Even the tissue paper matches" he said, a few times. lol Her quilting and all the little touches she added just make this mug rug a piece of art!

Even the backs are stunning! I love these fabrics she used!

Thank you, Frieda, for making our 2nd mug rug swap such a huge success for me! I just love everything you made for me and sent to me, you are a peach!

I'll have to do another blog post to show you what I sent, I have more trouble using IE with Blogger.... and my computer guy doesn't want me to download Mozilla, which I LOVE. Grrr. This has taken me twice as long as it should have and I got only half of what I wanted to post, to show. lol

Ready for Breakfast! ....and now I can show you....

Parker woke up hungry. Note to self- bleach the towels, geeze. lol You wouldn't want to lie on the countertop without a towel, though, it's COLD. I'm actually going to quilt a small cover for that island, I have some Folklorica fabric just for that purpose!

Anyhoo, these 2 mug rugs were just delivered to 2 girlfriends, so now I can show you! One side is "normal" and the back refers to funny things that happened during our week together. I drove down to visit Jennifer and help her arrange her newly remodeled kitchen and Lisa drove up from Louisiana, we had a marvelous time and so many laughs!

My friend Jennifer is eating a lot of apples lately, so she got a cute apple fabric for her mug rug. She is normally a very lady-like person. She sneezed one day, while she driving. Unfortunately, she had a mouthful of chocolate/toffee popcorn at the time and her hands were occupied and she spewed bits of popcorn all over her dash. Sounds gross but her reaction to it was priceless. A whole lot of "OMG, OMG! I can't believe I did that, I couldn't help it!!" And with 2 witnesses, no less! So the back of her mug rug says "Achooo" with a spray coming out. I wish now I'd spelled it "Ach...ewwww, but I wanted to use the popcorn shaped "ooo's", to tie it all together.

On the apple, the little reflection thing is actually a silver tag that says "made with love". Awww! I do love her, she's like the sister I never had and just a beautiful person, inside and out, even when she spews bits of masticated, ground up food all over the inside of her car. Into the sun. Where it really showed up great! lol Bwahahaha. We'll never let her forget that, will we, Lisa?

Lisa is a big coffee addict, so she got a coffee theme fabric and I just had to use skulls and ladybugs together because it makes me laugh, just like Lisa makes me laugh all the time. She has the funniest, drollest sense of humor and acts out her little stories and makes funny faces and is just so fun to be around. Even when she's mad, she's funny. And sarcastic. I just love her. She's a Cajun girl and has the great accent to prove it. Her little tag is in the saucer. I'd like for her to be my other sister. :)

She was telling us about her very comfy relationship with her hubby. How they are soooo casual and that they don't even bother to take their socks off anymore when they ... you know, have sex! Well, we had more fun with that! And then she told us she wears dark socks! AND, they have no curtains, the bedroom faces the bayou. So we're ribbing her about her sock-clad feet waving around in the air and how fishermen in the bayou are probably laughing their butts off while watching this from the snake-infested swamp. So the back of her mug rug is red with a hot tub on it, 2 sock-clad legs sticking up in the air and a tiny bit of a head with a snorkel sticking out of the water. They just bought a hot tub and I thought that would make it easier to explain the legs than if I had made a bed! SEE how nice I am?

But what's REALLY funny is- her mother was visiting when she received the mug rug in the mail. Her hubby carried it in and she opened it in front of them both and then had to explain the back. ROFLMAO

Lisa and Jennifer. This was last year when we went on a girls-only road trip to FL, had the best time ever! If I had known about mug rugs then, there's no telling what I could have blackmailed them with!

The mini quilt swap, part 2!

Remember I showed you the piece I made, the mermaid looking thru the porthole? That's what I sent to Liz, and then a few days later, I received this from her. She does the most incredible work and she totally nailed my likes.... pirates, 3D, the beach, fabric, color, cleverness, everything! And, as you can see, she sent more! A set of coasters, 2 magnetic bookmarks and a really sweet beachy card. Booty, mates, that is what I found when I opened up the chest, er, package!

The most fabulous Capt. Jack Sparrow, check out the beads in his hair, the key in his hand, the ship on the water.....

...standing on the beach, glaring at the treasure chest...

...which is full of bolts of FABRIC! Is that clever or what??? I was dying, I thought that was so funny and unique and just incredible! The entire quilt is done with the most beautiful batik fabrics, and so many different ones. I just love this quilt, and I adore Liz for making it for me. The cleverness continues.....

To hang the quilt- 2 precious little keys that peek out over the top, they are so in theme, such attention to detail!

On the back, a little map is folded up and held closed with a dear little lobster claw clasp. SO precious. Unfurled, it reveals all the details of our swap.

Details blurred to protect the info from falling into
other treasure seekers' hands!

Big, huge thanks to Liz for totally making my day and week, for spending so much of her time designing and constructing this most wonderous piece for me, a piece that I will treasure forever! Thanks, sweet lady! I love your sense of humor and attention to detail!

A couple of cool cats....

First, we had a bit of company last week, our friend Patrick drove up on his way to Colorado and spent the night. We put him to work dicing onions to go into the buffalo burgers and he said he wouldn't mind wearing my pinnie. Looks pretty good on him, too, wouldn't you say? He's a fun guy and keeps us laughing most of the time.

The next day, he and Jim drove off into the sunrise together but in separate trucks, to head the rest of way to CO, talking to each on hand-helds. After helping Patrick unload a truck full of furniture, Jim intended to catch a mess of big trout. So he's having a fishing vacation and getting to spend time with his buddy, so he's happy.

The next night, as I was lying in bed reading, I saw something just horrible- Beeswax's neck was bright reddish-pink and it just freaked me out, I was sure it was blood. Then I remembered he was wearing a hot pink collar and had gotten caught in a severe rainstorm earlier! Phew! His collar was bleeding, not him! My boy was OK. Scared me, though!

Nosey Parker evidently really misses her Daddy because she has been glued to me all night, every night. Sleeping curled up in my arms, on my stomach, cooking me until I'm sure I'm going to explode, making bread on my wrists and palms until they're a prickled mess, gosh, I just love it! My baby..... she's so stinking sweet when she's asleep!


Up on the fabric hutch, which is usually covered with a white towel....

Part 2- vacation....

We left FL on a Wed morning and spent the night just south of Jackson, MS. It takes FOREVER to get out of Florida, it's a long state to begin with and then we ran across the top of it, in the panhandle. It was about 10 PM when we finally stopped and we were so tired that we didn't even care much that our door was loose in its frame and wobbly, we just showered and conked out and slept a good 5 hours before getting up a little after 3 and hitting the road again. We were heading to Longview TX and there were fish there with Jim's and Charles' names on them, just waiting to be caught. Got to Longview about 9 AM and after a quick bite to eat, the boys left to fish. Jen and I spent the day catching up and she worked some, she works from home. The men came home hot and happy, having caught a slew of bass and catfish. I think we all hit the sack early that night, it had been another long day for us.

The next day Jen had lots of work errands to do and I was her assistant, pulling real estate signs, labeling envelopes, etc. That earned us lunch out at a sandwich shop called Newks that was SO good, I could eat there every day. We had a chicken/pesto/goat cheese sandwich and a Greek salad, it was all yummy. Mmmm mmm. Now I have to add goat cheese to the shopping list! The boys caught a couple of fish, not as good a day as the one before, so they requested and got an early dinner so they could go out again and do some later fishing. Chicken/spinach enchiladas, that was so good! I have that recipe now, Jim really likes it too so I'll be making it a lot, I'm sure.

The day after that was Saturday and the boys took the day off from fishing. They went to Academy, a fabulous sporting goods store where I had bought some wonderful shirts for Jim(like the aqua one in the photo, $12.88!) and got myself one, too. Jen and I went to the local quilt shop, Sharmin's. It's very nice, not huge but well stocked and I got more fat quarters and ..... vacuum cleaner bags! lol They sell vacuums and sewing machines there, and fabric. That was great, I always have trouble finding bags for my vac.

One night we made shish-ka-bob and corn on the cob. OK, here's what good friends we are- after dinner, we all sat around the table with little flossers in our hands and got all the corn and meat out from between our teeth. lol You couldn't do that with just ANYBODY, you know? *snork* We laughed SO much over this long weekend, we all got along so well and had just the best time. Pranks were played, even a game of Uno and Chinese Checkers (my husband is a whiz at that game, what an analytical mind he has), all in good fun but very competitive, too.

We stayed several days with Charles and Jennifer, had a wonderful time and hated to leave, but our housesitter had other jobs to go to, so we drove home happy and content, but already missing our best friends. Did I mention the boys washed all the love-bugs off my car the night before and that Charles even cleaned my tires? I felt so swanky on the drive home!

Nosey Parker was happy to see us, all the animals were, so that was nice. NP actually came inside and sat with us for hours, during her usual play time, so I think she really missed us.

Here she is on one of the towels Jen gave me, a shark attack towel. Way to feed my fears, Jen! lol Good thing the baby isn't as neurotic as her mother.

Memorial Day Weekend, Longview, TX

My best buddy, Jennifer and me, in her front yard, waiting for Robo-Jogger to run by in the heat of the day, and believe you me, it is H.O.T. there at noon. She was always telling me about this crazy guy with the super-erect running form who runs when it's just too, too hot. So when he ran past just as we got home from shopping, her DH set up a viewing stand in the front yard and got out binoculars and everything for his return pass. Then he stood there and took pictures of the poor guy, and of us, until we got to laughing so hard we were crying. Poor guy must think we're insane, but it was so funny how Charles just pimped that guy out for us.

It's been crazy since we got home- we had to take Artie to the vet to get an ear infection cleaned up, we installed a ceiling fan in the guest room which took all day on Thursday (long boring story, no good way to get into attic, required removal of attic fan and lots of itching and crawling, poor husband and a drive to the big city for parts) and then our pond messed up yesterday and we had to take it all apart and clean it and catch fish, etc. Now he's mowing and I'm off to the grocery because we have company coming tonight, my brother and SIL will be here for a week. My other brother is already here, staying at my parents, he's allergic to pets.

Never a dull moment around here!

Be sure to check out the Doll Quilt Swap button on the right- sign ups are over and the fun is about to begin! I'll be busy with it a lot because I'm a swap mama this go-round, this ought to be interesting!