wishin' it was spring already...

I hate winter. Have I mentioned that lately?

Yesterday and today has been "freeze your butt off" cold. School was cancelled. Yesterday's coldest temp was around -8 F. This morning, my sweetie was nice enough to walk Skye for her first potty of the day, and it was -14. Yes, that is a minus sign in front of the number. UGH!

Today we spent the better part of the day dealing with a frozen water situation. We get our water from an old spring house at the edge of the woods. The water then goes into two different holding tanks, then continues down to us as needed. Well, the main gate valve was not covered properly (for whatever reason) and it froze. Lee and Daddy made a reflector around the valve and had a Coleman propane heater on it for many hours. Meanwhile, we were doing our best to scrounge up breakfast and lunch that did not require lots of pots/dishes/etc. And of course, no toilet flushing. Thank God for baby wipes and hand sanitizer. Hours passed and then finally....water!! So now the gate valve is really super-duper insulated.

Then later tonight, after washing up most of the dishes, we noticed that the tub had begun to collect water. Yep...another problem. The main drainage pipe was frozen. Luckily, the toilet has a seperate drain directly to the septic. So, the water in the tub was just handwashing water and dishwater. Anyway, now that's been taken care of, too.

And....we're getting lots and lots of snow as I'm typing this. School is already on a two-hour delay, and I'm guessing they will decide to close it for tomorrow, too. We've been hearing 1-3", other forecasts say 2-4", and we even heard a forecast earlier that said up to five in low-lying areas and up to 12" in the mountainous regions.

Winter sucks.

Here are some fabrics that make me think of spring, sherbert, and warm sunshine. The colors are actually a little less intense in person, but you get the idea.

Tick Tock...Tick Tock...

Do you hear it? I hear it constantly...tick tock tick tock....Christmas is almost here. I got one package out Monday, and still have one to finish and get shippped. Absolutely nothing is wrapped. Our tree is not yet up, although I did get the living room rearranged a few days ago for it. (If I didn't have a kid...I'd probably skip it this year. That's just how I'm feeling.) I'll be at the sewing machine again today.

I keep getting seed catalogs in the mail. C'mon people! How am I supposed to keep my head in the game, so to speak, when I'm seeing spring in my mailbox.

I feel guilty for making grandiose Christmas plans, then not accomplishing the whole list. Then I feel even guiltier because in my heart I know that's not what this time is about anyway. The true meaning of Christmas gets so lost these days. I hate the commercialism of it. The pressure of it.

I took a break Monday evening and watched Mary Poppins on the Hallmark channel. It's been years since I've seen that and I've been humming Spoonful of Sugar ever since.



Well, Morgan recently got her own little tree for her room. She's been wanting one for many years, and she's loving it. And of course it needed to have pink all over it!

I'll do my best to post again real soon and show some of the things I've made. I really didn't mean to let so much time pass since my last post. Be back soon...

yummy fabrics and buttons...

A recent shopping trip yielded some good finds. I went to a local quilt shop and got several gorgeous fat quarters.


And I also took a short trip up the interstate to a shop in Fairmont I've never been to. It is mostly upholstery fabrics and foams, but on one side they have an interesting selection of quilting fabrics, stencils, and other interesting odds-n-ends. Found some good fabrics there, too. Ooooh, and they have two large plastic tubs full of buttons, by the piece or by the pound. It was heaven sifting through all those buttons! I really could have spent even longer, but my time was running short. I managed to find several of the red/white buttons in two sizes, and couldn't pass them up. And I thought the ones with the black and white honeycomb design were really unique. Can you believe all these buttons only cost me 19 cents?! Definitely won't be my only trip to that well-kept-secret!

an update...

Dark Brown Allova Micro-suede
Dark Brown Vinyl
Beige Cotton Crinkle Gauze
White Muslin

What do these things have in common? Well, they are all part of that huge project I've been working on. That project that looms over me like a bad dream! Within the next several days, I should be able to reveal this project in it's entirety.



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I've also been working on a butterfly pouch from the Omiyage book, handstitching bits here and there when not at home (waiting for my daughter at school, etc.).



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Look at the weather we've had lately! ACK!!! We've barely had fall, and already, the snow is flying.

successful Asian fabric hunt

This weekend, my hubby's model railroad club is having a show at our mall. My daughter and I went out this evening to eat dinner with him and hang out for a bit.

After we ate, I walked down to Joann Fabrics to check for good cloak fabric for dh's Jedi costume and to search out Asian fabrics. Mission successful! Found some possible cloak fabrics, and will make a purchase after dh's approval (I have a 50% off coupon good through Monday!!!!) Anyway...back to the important stuff...heehee!...I managed to find some Asian fabrics, and they were all on sale for $1 less per yard. Cool thing about the Omiyage projects, they take such small amounts of fabric, so I was able to buy pretty much every Asian themed fabric I found. (A pitiful selection to be honest. But, since I had none in my stash, it's a good start.) The ones I liked best I got quarter yards, the others I got as eighth yards.

It's hard to tell in the photos, but most have gold highlights. They are sooooo rich looking. I think by carefully combining with current stash fabrics, any further Omiyage projects should look much more authentic.

I couldn't resist posting the second picture. That's our youngest furbaby, Skye, in the lower right corner checking out mama's new stuff. She approved :)