Around the House – Page 3

I’m Dreaming …

18 Comments / December 16, 2013 December 17, 2013 / Around the House, Store

…of a White Christmas and it’s looking pretty iffy out there. We finally have snow, but we’re expecting a little warm-up on the weekend. Fingers crossed that it won’t all melt! I loooove snow and we got a nice little storm over the weekend. According to the weatherman, we got 7″. It’s so pretty out the back window.

Well, how’s your holiday prep coming along??? We’re in the single digits now — only 9 more days until Christmas! I finally have a little decorating, a lot of shopping, and a little wrapping done. It’s a mess, really. Super Secret Sewing took several weekends but that’s been conquered now — Yay! And yesterday was the annual gingerbread baking day. I learned a few years ago that the gingerbread needs to be made earlier than the day before the competition to allow the gingerbread to dry out a little. That seems to help with all the cave-ins. (Btw, here’s the link to our recipe — you still have time if you’d like to do your own gingerbread houses this year.)

So, not much to show, but there has been a LOT of work going on around here — around your house too, I’m betting. And, I’m thinking, if you’re getting tired, you should treat yourself to a little surprise! ;-D I’ve put a few Moda precuts into my little shop just in case you decide to treat yourself.

(L to R: Printemps by 3 Sisters, April Showers by Bonnie and Camille, Color Me Happy by V and Co and Le Bouquet Francais by French General)

I also have some charm packs of April Showers listed just in case you need a last minute gift for a quilty friend or two. Or (it goes without saying) YOU. Did you buy yourself a gift yet this year? I haven’t bought mine yet, but it’s almost certain to be fabric LOL.

Okey Doke. Must run. Still a little secret knitting that needs to happen. Good Luck with the next week — Be Good to Yourself!!!

XOXO,
Anna

Happy Happy

32 Comments / November 27, 2013 November 27, 2013 / Around the House, Holidays

Zip Zippity. Just like the rest of the year, November has whizzed by and here we are at the end of the month. And it’s Thanksgiving for all of us in the U.S. Yay! I’ve been off work this week and I’m having a wonderful time just working around the house. I’ve been cleaning like a mad man — the price you pay when you ignore the cleaning all year long. Not much sewing done this week, although I did manage to cut into the pile of fabric I showed you a week or two ago. Five hundred and some-odd tumbler pieces. I’m thinking this will be a fun, easy quilt. It might be put aside for a bit though — you know, Christmas sewing and all.

Today was Pie Day (not to be confused with Pi Day which involves equally delicious baking.) I made the usual Apple, Pumpkin and Pecan pies for our Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow and therefore, I must document them here. ;-D Lisa had a fun post a few weeks ago about apple pie and she used the same leaf-shaped pie crust cutters that I have to decorate her pie. I’d only used those leaves around the edges of the pies, so I thought I’d try it her way and I think it looks so cute!

Being at home, doing all this domestic stuff makes me SOOOOO happy. TheManoftheHouse asked me yesterday if I was enjoying my week off. I wanted to say “Are you kidding?????” HAPPY. Happy. Happy. Happy. And here’s the cream on top of the week — we got a new bookcase.

A new bookcase is always HAPPY-inducing, but this one makes me deliriously HAPPY. Seeeeeee????

Do you know what this means??? I won’t have to climb that rickety old ladder to get into the attic anymore. That makes me SCREAMING HAPPY!!!!!!!

;-D

Ok. I’ve settled down now.

If you’re celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow, I hope you have a safe, healthy, HAPPY Thanksgiving!!!

XOXO,
Anna

The Calm After the Storm

20 Comments / July 3, 2013 August 25, 2013 / Around the House

Finally, we saw the sun today, here in ThimbleannaLand! We’ve had days of rain and drizzle and water and water and water. Get the picture? Look at my happy little Shasta Daisy. Water = Happy!

On Saturday we. got. dumped. on. Buckets. Along with some hail. I had six pretty little rows of zinnias coming up and I watched out the window as they got pelted to death. I thought they might recover, but Sunday brought a steady rain that just pounded a lot of the little leaves into the dirt. So sad.

Not sure what to do about them — guess maybe I’ll try some more seeds. Summer will probably be over by the time they really get going though.

In other news, Nicolette and I had a little e-mail exchange about our Steampunk blocks. We were both having some problems and she mentioned that she was going to order some templates that have holes for marking the seamline in the corners. I thought about that for awhile and then decided to make some templates with the holes. I use the big templates to mark the cutting lines and the little templates to mark the stitching holes.

I can’t believe the difference it makes to have those little corners marked. I line the dots up and the blocks I’ve made using the new technique have been just right. No more wonky centers (not that it mattered that much, since they’re covered by a circle of fabric) and no more ripples on the edges. This block doesn’t look very straight, but it’s square. I’m almost sad to cover the center — I’ll probably never get another one like it LOL.

Just a thought, in case you’re going to make the Steampunk quilt. Think about getting the templates with the holes in the corners.

Not much else going on around here. It’s going to be a quiet 4th of July and I’m a little sad about that. The kids are all scattered this year. I know we’ll have other years when we’ll all be together, so we should probably just enjoy the quiet (haha — firecrackers!) with MeMum and BigDaddy. At any rate, if you’re in the US, I hope you have a Happy and Safe 4th of July!!!

XOXO,
Anna

There’s a Mouse in the House

48 Comments / February 6, 2013 June 22, 2013 / Around the House, Scruff

Hey there! Do you remember this cute little mouse that lives at MyDadLovesMeBestSister’s house?

Yeah? Well, we’re not talking about that kind of mouse. Noosireee. A few days ago, PaulKitty started acting funny. We’d find him staring at the wall for no reason. I told TheManoftheHouse that there must be something in there. (Knowing full well exactly what “something” meant.) Then, TheManoftheHouse found Paul Kitty staring at the pantry door. It does look kind of funny.

So, he opened the door and he saw it. IT dashed from the potato bin to hide behind the crockpot. But he couldn’t find it and he had stuff to do, so he left PaulKitty in charge. And then we sort of forgot about it. The next morning, both kitties were staring at the washer and dryer.

Clearly, our kitties are useless housekitties. Cassie and Sirius, they’re not. It had been a few days and I even found teeny tiny crumbs at the cat food station. Did they make friends with little mousy and share their food with him? Slackers. I threw TheManoftheHouse and PaulKitty in the laundry room and told them not to come out empty-handed. Twenty minutes and a lot of commotion later, TheManoftheHouse emerged victorious. PaulKitty was apparently hopeless. Wanna SEE???

Isn’t he cute???
Not.
He ruined the rest of my day. I had a nice relaxing day planned to read and sew a little bit. Instead, I had to clean out the pantry and laundry room. Very, very rude.
My week now is going much better. I hope yours it too!

XOXO,
Anna

A Button Board

46 Comments / October 7, 2012 June 22, 2013 / Around the House, Crafting

Did you all have a nice weekend? It was dreary here, but still beautiful. Our trees are turning early this fall — makes me worry a bit about what winter might have in store for us. The view from my kitchen window was so pretty today. I’m really happy that I snapped this picture today as we’re expecting a freeze tonight and the zinnias probably won’t be so vibrant tomorrow.

Someone had a really nice post not too long ago about moments that take your breath away. (Aha! It was Jody!!! ) She said that sometimes you see something so beautiful, it just grabs at your heart and you feel like it might burst. I felt that way today while I was out mowing the lawn. Even though the sun wasn’t shining, the trees and all the fall color were just so gorgeous. At one point, I mowed up to an area with a little thimble forest. If your blog is called Thimbleanna, you can’t pass up a thimble forest, so I ran inside and grabbed the camera. Thus, the new blog header.

It wasn’t all teary-eyed appreciation of Mother Nature around here this weekend. I did pick up a needle and thread. I sewed buttons to the new bulletin board that I made for my kitchen desk area.

These are so easy to make. Wrap foam core with batting and fabric and sprinkle a little hot glue here and there to hold it all down. Oops — I laid my hot glue gun down in the batting. I hate it when that happens.

I use a long doll-making needle and some pearl cotton and just stitch right through the foam core and fabric. Here’s the new board pressed into the desk area.

You can see the old board lying on the desk. It was from our previous house and it never really fit that wall very well, so I’m glad to have it replaced.

More stitching coming soon…. Have a great week!
XOXO,
Anna

P.S. The new Auriful block of the month is up and it’s adorable! It’s by Amanda Woodward-Jennings. Run over to the Aurifil blog to get this cute pattern and read Amanda’s interview. And don’t forget to load pictures of your finished blocks into the Flickr group for a chance to win some Aurifil thread!