Thimbleanna

Month: June 2010

Rodent Wars

If you’ve been reading along this spring, you know that we’ve been having a bit of a problem with too many critters around here.

Exhibit A — digested hostas from early May:

Bunnies

and Exhibit B — the presumed culprits:

Bunnies

A few weeks ago, I noticed that my impatiens weren’t flowering, so I knew the bunnies were dining on them. I tried cayenne pepper, as so many of you suggested, but it’s been such a rainy spring, that the pepper just washes away. Then, I sprinkled used cat litter (ewwww) around the plants, and that seemed to do the trick — within four days the impatiens had flowers. But last weekend, I was checking on my pretty-pink-lilies-to-be, and found this:

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Now THAT whizzed me off!  Almost all of my lilies are gone!

This.
Means.
War.

I borrowed TheBigGun from a friend of mine.

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TheManoftheHouse put a delectable dinner of carrots and peanut butter in TheBigGun on Sunday afternoon, and by Sunday evening, we had a contestant.
But Wait! This isn’t a Bunny!

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And neither is this:

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Apparently we’re feeding a whole zoo of little critters around here. So far, the count is 1 ground hog, 1 bunny (I wasn’t here when he popped in), and 1 raccoon. They’ve all been safely relocated to a nice patch of woods by a church. I’m hoping they’ll get religion and realize the error of their ways. It’s a cardinal sin to eat my lilies.

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Awww, look though. Aren’t they cute with their sweet widdle bitty beady eyes? I almost feel guilty taking them away from our smorgasbord.

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Hopefully, we’ll find the rest of their friends and they can all be reunited for a weekend of repenting in the woods by the church.

XOXO,
Anna

P.S.  I added Moda Bella Color cards to the shop AND the Bolts O’ Bella are once again on sale for 20% off in honor of the 4th of July!

Absent

Dear Little Blog O’ Mine,

I’m so sorry that you’ve been neglected all week.  It’s sad, but I’ve been SO busy with BelovedAunt here — and we’ve had a great time playing all week.  There’ve been cards — Hand and Foot and a new speedy game that Beloved Aunt brought with her — Wackee Six.

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Tons of baking — cookies, a pie,

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rolls, and bread.

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And lots of quilting.  Or what should have been lots of quilting — the cards and food sort of got in the way.  We’re working on a swap quilt — we make three of each fussy little star block (those points are a pain in the sewing box!) and then share with each other.  The colors looks awful in this picture — they really aren’t so odd.  And there’s a humility block in there too.

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Oooh, and we picked up this cool new tool at the NQA show last week.  It’s a small cutting table that swivels.  It makes squaring up those little blocks a breeze — we love it!

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So, little blog…sorry for the neglect of you and GoogleReader.  I’ll try to be better this next week!

XOXO,
Anna

Ooops!  I forgot to mention that I guest-posted over on Stash Manicure last week — there are lots of fun posts over there, so pop over and have a look if you have time!

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When we found out that my Aunt was coming for a visit, we decided to look and see if any quilt shows would be happening in our area during the time she would be here.  Lucky for us, the National Quilting Association was having their annual show this past weekend, so we made the three hour drive.

The quilts were beautiful.  As is the norm these days, there were lots of art quilts.

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For you Tolkein fans, this Lord of the Rings quilt took the Masterpiece Quilt award.  It’s a thread painted quilt and most all of the work on the quilt has been done with thread.  The inner panel represents Aragorn’s wedding to Arwen.  (I got that info from the tag — I have no idea what I’m talking about.)

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These horses ran along the bottom border of the quilt.

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There were plenty of traditional quilts too.

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And lots of beautiful applique.

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We particularly liked the pieced sashing on this quilt.

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It was great to see some beautiful examples of hand quilting.

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And there were quite a few quilts that were tiny.

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With teeny-weeny pieces.

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We had a wonderful time.  And if the quilt show wasn’t enough, between viewing the quilts in the morning and shopping the vendors in the afternoon, we decided to go across the street to get some lunch.  As we exited the convention center, the very first thing to greet our disbelieving eyes, was a woman dressed in black leather up to just below her um….breasticles, and from there up she was, well, naked.  Right behind her were a bunch of dancing, middle-aged overweight men dressed in nothing but black leather g-strings. We’d unwittingly landed smack dab in the middle of a huge Gay Pride Parade. The NQA website said there was to be a parade that day, but they didn’t say what kind.  Too bad those mostly naked people weren’t wrapped in quilts.

When you come to the all the way to the midwest to visit the relatives, we treat you in high style!!!

XOXO,
Anna

A FUN Party

The middle of the week is here already!  I’ve been pretty lazy this week — just resting up after my niece’s big graduation party this past weekend.  We had the best time and MyDadLovesMeBestSister had a wonderful party for the newly minted graduate.

The weeks around graduations here in the states are just crazy.  Everyone has a party for their graduate and everyone party hops until they’ve turned into pumpkins.  Having to squish your party in among all the rest is a challenge, so MyDadLovesMeBestSister decided to have a party that didn’t include lunch or dinner, but was right in the middle — Cupcakes, Coffee and Ice Cream.  It was a BIG hit.  Huge!  Lots of my niece’s friends said it was their favorite party.  What’s not to love?

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MyDadLovesMeBestSister had a barista there to make all sorts of coffee drinks — hot and iced.  My younger niece and her friend scooped ice cream for the guests to make their own sundaes.  And then there were all those cuppiecakes.  Sadly, I didn’t take pictures of the cupcake bar until there was a big dent in the pile, but you get the idea.  (I used Martha Stewart’s little cupcake flags and SweetiePie did most of the cupcake frosting.  Didn’t she do a great job?)  I thought it was pretty funny that the pink ones weren’t as fast to go as the other colors.  What’s wrong with pink???

Graduation Party

Every detail of the party was stunning.  Absolutely gorgeous!  The flowers were breathtaking (check out those lime flowers — swoon!)  In addition to the florist bouquets, there were a bunch of canning jar centerpieces that held gerbera daisies and paint brushes.  My niece plans to study art in college — how cute is that?  And in a fun twist of events, the colors my sister chose matched the quilt I’d made my niece.  Look at all the pretty tablecloths she whipped up from quilter’s cottons.

Graduation Party

Yum Yummy.  I want to go back and see it all again.  My sister sure knows how to throw a party!

Next Up — My BESTEST Auntie from Utah arrives tonight — I’m soooo excited!!!

XOXO,
Anna

Too Busy to Blog …

The kids are home for TheFirstNiece’s high school graduation — it’s been busy busy, run run.

I snapped a few quick pictures of TheFirstNiece’s gift today before we gave it to her at our family dinner after graduation tonight.

OhMyGosh Quilt

I basically followed this free Quilt Soup pattern with a few changes.

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On one block, I embroidered her name, school crest and date of graduation

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The printed blocks say fun things on them (Kiss Your Dad, Call Your Mom, Text Your Bro, etc.)– the block below was the first one I saw when I found this fabric in a quilt shop and I knew I needed to make this quilt for my niece AND for MeMum.

OhMyGosh Quilt

Aside from cooking for the after graduation dinner, playing cards with SweetiePie and attending the festivities, I made 12 dozen cupcakes yesterday for the graduation party today.  I’m frosting them this morning.

OhMyGosh Quilt

Our kitchen floor is sticky.
Must Run…………

XOXO,
Anna