And I thought yesterday was cold

Posted on January 15, 2009 by Suzanne

Mark gets up at the crack of dawn, lets the dog out, and then goes downstairs to exercise. Eventually, he returns to our bedroom to shower and get dressed for work. I’m usually only vaguely aware of him when he gets up, and yesterday when he did, the first thing I asked was “How much snow did we get.”

“I just got up! How should I know!”

See, I’d been dreaming, and I was absolutely positive that he had already BEEN up, and let the dog out and was back for his shower. In fact, I was sure that the boys were up, too.

We laughed, he went about his business, and the eventual answer was A LOT.

This morning, I made sure I waited until he was back in the room for his shower before trying to ask him any stupid questions. Like “How cold is it out there?”

His initial response was “Do you really want to know?”

I didn’t really want to know, but…what the heck.

NEGATIVE 21.

Blech.

****

So that’s today’s weather report. And now, I have a bone to pick with some of my commenters. Are you guys seriously dissing my Christmas sweater????

scan0014 And I thought yesterday was cold

(I nicked the picture from my Mom’s blog, it is circa 1995)

I LOVE that sweater.

I still WEAR that sweater. What you can’t see in the picture is the Christmas presents that are sitting under the Tree (around the bottom of the sweater).

OK, maybe I don’t LOVE it, but I do pull it out and wear it at least once during December, because get this: the buttons are actually BELLS. Jingle Bell Buttons. That Jingle. It is the most obnoxious sweater and I adore wearing it for that very reason.

So there.

****

And now, I need to go check on my offspring (they’ve had 1 early dismissal, 1 late start and 2 canceled days this week. Lovely.)

And then, I need to get something done.

Stay warm!

Suzanne

Every single day

Posted on January 13, 2009 by Suzanne

ice crystals Every single day

I got caught up in a quilt yesterday, and didn’t spend much time at the computer. The fact that my two helpers were here using the computer kept me away as well. I’m not sure how much snow we got, but it was a fair amount, followed by that nasty, nasty wind. School was out early, and then delayed today.

And I’ve heard that another storm is on its way tonight. Yippee.

The ice crystals above are on the front windows of the shop. Isn’t it pretty? I don’t know if that’ll be today’s photo or not, but I imagine I’ll be doing some weather related photos this winter.

So what it is with the daily photos? And is she going to get through the whole year?

Two years ago, I tried, and only made it through day 50. I don’t even recollect why I quit. I’m not harboring any delusions that just because I’ve managed to get 12 days in this year, I’m magically going to make it through all 365, but I will say that I have different attitude about it this year.

I realized that EVERY DAY I get out of bed. I brush my teeth and take a shower and eat breakfast and check my e-mail and do a whole bunch of other things that I don’t even think about. EVERY. STINKING. DAY.

So I said to myself “Self. You are an idiot. If you can do all of THOSE thing EVERY DAY, why can’t you add in something else?”

Why does it have to be so hard to find a way to exercise every day, or to be creative every day, or to write down a note about what happened that day or to take at least one photograph every single day?

It doesn’t have to be rocket science. Pick the camera up, take a picture of something. I’ve been keeping up with Photoshopping the pictures every day, but I’m not going to insist on that of myself as the year goes on. Though, I won’t let myself get too far behind, or I know I will quit.

What am I going to take pictures of? Well, the boys (all 3) for starters. Myself, occasionally. The dog. I plan to pick a tree or something else in my yard to take monthly pictures of, to show the change in the seasons. Quilts on the bed, little stuff around the house maybe. I have some ideas for what I’ll do if I don’t manage to pick up the camera — I might even fake some pictures (i.e. take a picture of something that hasn’t changed from one day to the next, like the piles on my desk…). Sometimes it’ll be places or people or other random, inanimate objects (like quilts!).

I want all of this in hard copy, too, and I sort of think I know what I’ll be doing with them, but I’m still debating.

The idea of a photo a day for a year is the latest HOT thing in the scrapbooking world, and there are tons of people giving it a whirl. Lots of ideas and scrapbooking products being shared. Lots of photos on Flickr you could go look at. It can be really complicated or really simple.

I’ve got quilts calling my name, so I better go heed their call.

TTFN-

Suzanne

Crazy

Posted on December 27, 2008 by Suzanne

In a bizarre turn of events, Suzanne will now complain about a LACK of snow.

Seriously.

Yesterday, we had what really did amount to a heat wave — it was 43 degrees when I went to bed last night. As a result: most of our snow is now gone. And it’s raining. Except, it’s gotten colder again, so now it’s a Freezing Rain Mist. And we are going to get 1/4 to 1/2 inch of ice accumulation.

Mark was going to take the boys skiing on Wednesday, but didn’t because the weather was really nasty. And then he had decided to take them TODAY.

Which is why I’m sad that there is no snow here in our part of Iowa. And that it is icy. Because even if the ski area they were going to still has snow on the trails (which they probably do, because they do make snow at this place…), I’m not sure that traveling in this ice is such a great idea. Ugh. Mark is glad that he spent an hour and a half the other day snowboarding down the hill he created in our backyard. It’s gone now.

I’m sure it’ll be back, but good grief. Everybody’s on vacation NOW, we want the snow NOW.

Oh, and I was supposed to be having a sale at the store, and I’m pretty sure I’ll be the only one here for most of thte day. And in all honesty, I’d rather people did stay home than try to come here.

Having a Heat Wave

Posted on December 23, 2008 by Suzanne

I was singing to the boys last night. They hate that.

It’s especially obnoxious when I don’t actually know all of the words to a song. And when I’m really trying to annoy them, I sing as loud as possible and try to go slightly off-key, too. (Which is harder than you might think, if you are trained to sing ON-key).

Supposedly it’s 25 (F) out there today. I think that means it is going to snow again.

I know I’ve said before that I had found my Holiday spirit, but apparently that was short-lived. I have to spend some quality time wrapping gifts tomorrow, so maybe I’ll catch it by then. In the meantime, I’m going to go quilt. One of my own, of you can believe it! I’m always so much harder on myself when I’m trying to quilt my own projects. I’m just…this…close…to pulling this one off because I don’t like what I chose to do…but. I’ve decided it’s too late and I’m going to soldier on. And once it’s all completely finished I’m sure it’ll be fine.

The boys did get to go to school today for one final day before their winter break. They took the quilts to their teachers, I hope the boys will tell me what their teacher’s said when they got unwrapped. Today was also the day that they were supposed to walk their food donations to the food pantry. I’ve seen 2 school buses drive by the shop, so I’m kind of guessing that they stuck them all on a bus instead of making them walk…

The quilts we gave the teachers this year are Double 9 Patches. Katie was my quilt tester a few days ago:

I just posted a tutorial for how I made them on my other blog. It’s nothing exciting, but I figured that after doing the math, I might want to (a) save it for future reference and (b) share it with anyone else that didn’t want to have to do the math themselves.

OK. Back to work.

Hope you are warm and safe wherever you are.

Suzanne

Baby it’s cold outside

Posted on December 22, 2008 by Suzanne

You’ve probably figured out by now that I’ve tried to use song titles (or lyrics) the last little while for my post titles. After my earlier post, I realized that Dashing Thru the Snow would have been a better title for my tale of driving woes.

Yesterday Mark told the boys they’d go outside to play if it hit 10 degrees. I don’t think it made it past 2 degrees.

This morning I saw MINUS 10. Wrong direction!!!

I’ve been staying inside sewing and quilting on the longarm. And listening to my cherubs play together, during yet another day off school. I’m hoping they can go tomorrow: wouldn’t them to miss out on a Christmas Party! One nice thing about moving up to the Upper Elementary, is that they no longer exchange $2 gifts with classmates, instead they are asked to bring food to donate to the food pantry. I’m also hoping they can go so they can deliver their teacher gifts, which got finished up last week. I went to wrap the quilts this evening, and decided to skip trying to find boxe sor bags that might work — I made gift bags.

Seriously!

The fabric was 60 inches wide, I hemmed the short edges, sewed up the two long edges (and actually sewed the other ends of the ribbon into one of the seams) and Voila! Reusable fabric gift bags. I didn’t time myself, but I’m guessing I spent no more than 30 minutes total from looking for the fabric to writing the notes and tying it all up. (The 30 minutes wasn’t necessarily all at one time…but…you get the drift…)

We got one of our nephews a somewhat unwieldy gift for Christmas, and I was trying to figure out how to wrap it — I think I know, now, what I’ll be doing!

In last year’s Christmas Journal, I wrote myself a note reminding myself that I did NOT need to buy wrapping paper, I have more than enough. Maybe, I need to start making some more of these fabric bags for future gift-wrapping ventures. Hey! Stashbusters — just think how much fabric you could making gift bags, for gifts year-round!

In case anyone is interested, I posted about the School Letter Banners I just finished making for a customer — over on the Knots & Bolts blog. It might be a little too late for a last-minute Christmas idea, but it’ll give you plenty of time in case you need a graduation present this spring!

And now, I think I’m going to turn everything off and head for my nice warm bed, so I can snuggle under the clean sheets with my clean dog.

TTFN-

Suzanne