Happy Easter!
I hope you’re having an Easter as beautiful as this one or this one. Or as elegant as this one! We’re having a quiet dinner with MeMum and BigDaddy. It will be just the four of us this year. We’ll be having a traditional Easter dinner of ham and scalloped potatoes on MeMum’s pretty Bluebird table.
If nothing else, I hope your Easter Basket is full of pretty fabric!
XOXO,
Anna
Ooops! I sort of had a little blog break there, but to tell you the truth, there’s not much going on around here. Winter will. not. die. and I spend my days holed up sewing yoyos when I’m not at work.
I did manage to order a little Easter candy for MeMum. She saw an ad in her Martha Stewart magazine and mentioned to me several times how much she loved these toy candies when she was a little girl.
Do any of you remember these little candies? The ones I remember were Christmas figures and even when I was a little girl, they were considered old-fashioned candies. They were definitely from MeMum’s era and before.
If I had it to do over again, I would order differently. The candies above are so tiny, they’re hardly worth it. (I placed the thimble in the picture for reference.) And the bunny below is just too big. They do have mid-sized candies and that’s what I would order next time. They’re still really cute though, and I hope MeMum will like them.
Ok, our little chitchat is over. Back to the yoyos. I’ve been having a great time watching Upstairs Downstairs while I sew. It was a happy day when realized that I could watch on my laptop while TheManoftheHouse is watching ManDrivel on the tv. I only have about 8 of the 68 episodes left and I’ll be really sad to see the end of the series.
I’ll be finding a new series to watch (oh how I love Netflix), as I still have a LOT of yoyos to go. I’m making good progress though. Yoyo Count: Yoyos: 443, Me: 425. Almost half-way!
XOXO,
Anna
Yipee! It’s the Weekend. Here’s a little randomness from my week:
1. Yesterday was Pi Day — did you partake? I made Pecan and Cherry Almond pies for our little party at work. I found this pie crust idea on Pinterest (aka Cute Idea Mecca). My crust is wonky due to the almond glaze, but, oh well.
2. And, in keeping with the “day” theme, today was Match Day! (Every year on the third Friday of March, 4th year medical students across the country learn where they’ll spend their residency. It’s the exciting peak of all those years of hard work. I think schools probably do their programs a little differently, but here, each student is randomly called to receive their envelope. They can choose to open their letter privately, or open it in front of everyone and announce their exciting news (usually with their spouse and children by their side). Another fun part of the tradition, medical students place $1.00 in a container as they announce their results. The last person called gets to keep all the money as a reward for patience in the face of high anxiety.)
Our family has been beside ourselves with excitement this week! The festivities started at noon today and TheManoftheHouse and I tuned in to the live streaming video right on time. Which was a good thing, as TheFirstChild was the very first student (out of 300+, I think) to read the big news. He got his first choice for residency — WOOHOO! He’ll be about 8 hours away for the first year and then only two hours away for the following three years. (Look out Gurney, he’s headed your way.) We’re SOOOO excited for TheFirstChild and SweetiePie!!!
3. Like a lot of you, I was surprised by the news about the demise of Google Reader. I’ll be looking for a replacement. I’ve read a little about Feedly and Bloglovin’. Any other suggestions? (Random Snack of Choice Picture.)
4. Becky at Piece O’ Cake posted a link to this interesting article the other day. It’s all about manners in this new age of digital media and it’s a good read. Digital media manners are a whole different animal to societal manners. The one that really caught my attention is that it’s considered rude to send an e-mail just to say thank-you, because it causes the other person to waste time opening up and reading the e-mail. I’ll be thinking hard on that one and will probably try to improve my manners. Which means if you leave me a nice comment, but there really isn’t much to say other than “thank you” — well, I probably won’t reply anymore. That way you won’t be wasting your time. Sound good?
5. Yoyos: 658, Me: 210. (Note, safety pins have now replaced the basting gun. ;-D)
Have a GREAT weekend!!!
XOXO,
Anna
I thought I’d pop in for a minute and take a yoyo break. I’ve been yoyo obsessed and I’m spending almost all not-at-work moments sewing those darn yoyos to their quilt. The Count? Yoyos: 688, Me: 180. I’m getting there! Progress will probably slow down as the project drags on though — you probably know how that goes.
Before I started sewing the yoyos down, I managed to make a few more of the pieced stars that I started making a few months ago. This is a project that will reeeeally be slow, but that’s ok, I’m enjoying the process. I also had two happy discoveries that will make this project more fun.
I wasn’t terribly happy with my joining stitches and I remembered that MeMum always used silk thread when she was stitching applique blocks. I decided to order a few spools and it makes all the difference. The silk thread is so fine, it gets partially buried into the fabric. Yay for less visible stitches!
I also realized that one little charm square will give me 3 or 4 diamond pieces. A charm pack has 42 different prints, so that means that two charm square packs will make 42 different stars. That’s perfect for my scrappy stars. My Avalon and Glamping charm packs arrived with perfect timing!
I probably should be trying to come up with a plan or a color scheme for these stars. Maybe I can think about it while I’m sewing down yoyos LOL!
I hope you’re having a good week!
XOXO,
Anna
Hello Invisible Peeps! Just popping in for a quick check-in. It’s been a busy, not-productive-crafty-wise week here. I had a trip for work, earlier in the week. I flew home from Washington/Reagan on Wednesday afternoon (you know, the day when the snowquester was supposed to hit). Check out this picture of the airplane departure board that I posted on Instagram:
How lucky was that? My flight was one of the very few in the whole airport that wasn’t cancelled. I felt like I should run out and buy a lottery ticket. And to add to my luck, look what I found when I got home! SNOW!!!!
Finally! We’ve had such a snow-worthless winter this year. I guess it’s better late than never. I took this picture early this morning just as the sun was coming up. It’s my Friday off, but I ran into work for a 5:30 a.m. workout with this awesome trainer that we have in our teeny-tiny fitness center. Only two of us showed up that early but it was SO worth not sleeping in. Especially when you consider that I stopped at Starbucks on the way home and undid all the calories I burned. YayMe!!!
So, now, I’m going to work on the yoyos for a little while this morning and watch and old movie or two. I’ve sewn a few yoyos down this week. Yoyos: 824, Me: 44. At this rate, I’ll be done by 2019! (Oh, and in the interest of full disclosure, you’ll notice a few pins in there. I’m thinking I might stop using the basting gun to hold the yoyos to the quilt — I’m worried that it’s going to make holes in the quilt back.)
Have a great weekend!
XOXO,
Anna