October 2007 – Page 2

Martha!

29 Comments / October 18, 2007 February 12, 2012 / Peep Days, Travel

I realize that there are some of you out there that don’t like Martha. So, you’ll probably be surprised when I tell you that, in spite of ALL the NYC has to offer, the main reason we went to NYC was to see Martha. The quilty peeps and I joke that Jewels is THE original Martha fan. Considering that, Jewels, you were amazingly well behaved!

Martha was Amazing! Awesome! Absolutely Fabulous! I wasn’t terribly excited about going when I found out the focus of the show would be about aging. I really don’t need aging reminders these days. But, I needn’t have worried — it wouldn’t matter who the guests were, it was just fascinating to watch Martha and her staff at work. I probably sat with my mouth wide open the whole time. And the set is more beautiful that it appears on tv. More beautiful than people say it is. Jaw droppingly beautiful.

We had incredible seats (thanks Gurney!.) On the floor, second row. Right. In. Front. Of. Martha. During the first segment, they showed a long video about the new center that Martha has opened at Mt. Sinai hospital and it was really fun to watch Martha watch the video. She was just as attentive as if she were seeing it for the first time. Every once in awhile she’d glance up and scan the audience — but never with any acknowledgement — just a brief glance, then back to the video. And I was actually proud of her as she interviewed her guests that day — none of the classic Martha-interrupt-the-guest behavior.

Between segments, of course, we had Joey to entertain us. He’s very funny and kept the audience pumped up. One thing that really annoyed me though, was that between segments, they play music. High energy music to keep everyone motivated, but also, I suspect to keep the audience from hearing any comments that might be made by the staff as they prepared for the next segment. Ob. Nox. Ious.

Martha was so impressive, I can’t possibly describe it to you. After our morning live segment, they asked the audience to remain seated while Martha did a 4-5 minute taping for something. They explained that what she said would all be gibberish to most of us. She was taping a highly technical blurb describing the inner workings of the Martha Stewart website. I was stunned that she could read through all those technical words — only stopping one time to check on the correct pronunciation of an acronym. She practically read it like she was reading a first grade storybook. For all I know, she rehearsed the blurb for hours, but I doubt it. Wow — there’s a reason she’s at the top.

After the show, they announced that they had a few extra tickets for the afternoon taping. We briefly debated what to do — NYC shopping beckoned and it was a tough call. We felt a little gyped at the audience gifts — pomegranate juice and a ticket to a yoga class weren’t far off from our joking predictions that we’d probably get prune juice and a month’s discount at a nursing home. We decided to go for it, and we were lucky that we were the first section to be excused. We rushed to the desk and got the last two tickets and positions 1 and 2 for standby for the afternoon show. Then we went to City Quilter and grabbed some lunch before our return to the studio at 1 p.m.

The first hint that we’d made the right decision was in the warm-up room when Joey told us that we’d be getting a few nice prizes and that the morning guests got nothing. (It warmed my heart to see that they considered pomegranate juice a cop-out gift!) The second show (to be aired today or tomorrow in the states, depending on your market) was a lot more fun and exciting. Sherry Sheppard (the new host on The View) and Martha made children’s halloween costumes. (Sherry was pretty funny — Junie pointed out that she made a funny joke about jail which I missed, so I’m anxious to see the show this week.) We snagged a nice beginner sewing book from those segments. Then, Martha cooked two different chicken dishes with two Itialian chefs. Those segments bagged us a beautiful Italian cookbook! But more than the prizes, I was really glad we went to the second show because that experience was so different from the morning session. A taped show vs. a live show, we sat on the complete opposite side of the studio, and it was just a lot more fun! And during the taping, a cameraman made a mistake and there was a tense moment — would Martha yell “Off with his head”??? Everything remained calm and after a brief embarrassing moment to identify the culprit, taping resumed.

At the end of the second show, Martha hung around for three or four audience questions. I got to ask one of them. I’ve always loved the big jars that she has on her set (pictured in the middle picture of the top row in the collage above) so I asked her if they’d be available in her Macy’s line. She said all of the products (including those jars) that were in her old Martha Stewart catalog will be available at Macy’s around the fall of ’08. Yipee!

Thanks for a fabulous trip Quilty Peeps! Jewels, thanks for the inspiration to go in the first place; Joni, thanks for making all the arrangements; and Gurney, thanks for getting those awesome Martha tickets. You are all THE VERY BEST EVER Quilty Peeps!!!

XOXO,
Anna

P.S. Vallen is hosting a potluck today! I hope you’ll all join us. I plan to attend, although I have a rather full day, so I’ll probably do an after-potluck report! ;-)

The Quilty Peeps Go To NYC

22 Comments / October 15, 2007 February 12, 2012 / Peep Days, Travel

Whew! First of all, thank you for all your lovely comments on my last post. The Quilty Peeps and I made it back from NYC and I’m happy to say, none of us needed a wheelchair to get around! We had a fabulous time — we all get along so well, it’s hard not to have fun with the girls. We spent our first day with Martha Stewart — which deserves a post of its own later.

Before we left, the ever-so-sweet Vallen directed me to her very kind friend Rebecca, who gave us some great food recommendations. Thanks for all your great suggestions Rebecca! We made it to Juniors, but the other places eluded us on this trip and were we ever sorry. I can recommend one place NOT to go — and that’s the revolving restaurant at the top of the Marriot at Times Square. Yucky Buffet. Bad Service. Expensive drinks. That said, they were effective drinks and a certain someone was very friendly with the Times Square policemen. We kept hearing “something about men in uniform”??? Don’t worry, certain someone, what happens in NYC, stays in NYC. LOL.

The rest of our time was spent shopping and double decker bus sight-seeing. We originally thought what a great deal the bus tour would be — a hop-on-hop-off tour, so we could use it to double as transportation around the city. Wrong. It was too slow and inconvenient. Oh well, the tour part was fun, although we ran out of time and missed many of the major sites.

Our best shopping was at all the blogger favorite places in the fashion district and Soho. (The links to all of these places can be found in the wonderful NYC shopping guide by disdressed.) Tinsel Trading was all decked out for the season with their Halloween stuff on display. Lots of glittery goodness.

We all loved MJ Trim, The Store Across the Street, and City Quilter. Junie and I had fun in Grey Line Linen and Gurney went a little nuts over all the ric rac at Daytona. We took pictures of all of our loot:

Junie got the most beautiful brown, orange and aqua linens — it’s hard to tell from the picture, but they are really gorgeous! We also shopped a bit in Soho. Of course, we visited both Purl and Purl Patchwork and loved them both.

Purl has these adorable little sweaters strung across their door:

And of course, being in NYC, we had to partake of the current cupcake obsession. Magnolia came first and by now it had started to rain. We sat in the little park across the street and had a yummy cupcake.

The next day, we checked out Billy’s.

It was a scientific experiement, you understand. It was a tough call, but I think we decided that Magnolia edged out Billy’s by a hair. Not that it matters — we’ll gladly take either kind! Our trip went by way too fast. Next time I’ll tell you all about our visit with Martha!
XOXO,
Anna

Honesty

19 Comments / October 7, 2007 February 18, 2011 / Chat

{Sigh} I’ve been so busy this weekend, I haven’t even had time to read your blogs! Yesterday I mowed and then went to MyDadLovesMeBestSister’s to photograph MeMum’s quilts for a little project I have in mind. Holy Cow, I thought I was in the desert somewhere. It was HOT here this weekend — it felt like July outside and I was dripping wet out there taking pictures. Then I came home to change my shirt and my car died. At least I was at home! Today I made curtains for our admin assistant’s little girl — very glad to get that little task out of the way.

Tonight, TheManoftheHouse and I towed the car to the dealer’s. He said it was my idea to tow it there. Is he NUTS? Yeah, I said “We’ll have to tow it.” Did I mean WE would do it? No-oo. That means call a tow truck. So, when he said ok, and then made plans for us to do it, I just went with the flow. Fortunately, everything went well, unless you count all the times he yelled at me. LOL.

Several of you asked to see the booty from my visit to Clementine’s. Here ’tis:

The brown Kaffe Fassett fabric in the foreground is the print that Camilla helped me pick out for the Magoo Monkey pattern. I think it will be cute (if I ever get around to it!) Camilla actually had all three background colors of the Martha Negley cupcakes. I bought the aqua one in the spring and I had to hunt all over the internet for it. I ordered it at one place and they said they were out of it and couldn’t get anymore. I finally found it at another place and she said I got the last of her yardage. (I certainly couldn’t own a fabric shop, ’cause every time I got near the end of the bolt, I’d have to hoard it for myself.) Anyway, if you’ve been hunting that aqua cupcake fabric, Camilla’s your woman!

A week or so ago, both Lucy and Nicollette tagged me for the 8 Honest Things about yourself meme. I’ve been thinking about this all week — it’s been really hard to come up with 8 things and I’ve probably told you about some of them before:

1. I don’t like massages. I know most people love them, but I just hate them. Sometimes I wonder if maybe my skin is sensitive compared to other people or something — I just find them very annoying.
2. I love to eat outside.
3. I love camping.
4. Are you sensing a theme here? My grandfather and great-grandfather were gov’t trappers. They loved the out of doors. That must be where #2 and #3 came from.
5. I’ll always feel very sad that I never had a daughter. There better be granddaughters! LOL.
6. I need to learn how to say no to people who don’t sew. I did say no this week to people who don’t make cupcakes.
7. I looked in the mirror and guess who’s eyes were looking at me? My Grandma’s.
8. Now here’s my really honest confession: I recently had a birthday and didn’t tell you because I’m. Not. Happy. About. It. How dumb is that? Don’t you think we should be happy for every year we get? I hope I’m over it now. LOL.

And, in honor of #8 and Junie’s recent birthday, the Quilty Peeps and I are celebrating by going to The Big Apple. We’ll be gone all week. And in a VERY IRONIC twist, we’re going to see Martha and her guest is going to be a geriatric physician. We couldn’t have planned that if we tried!

You kids be good while I’m gone.
XOXO,
Anna

P.S. I’m supposed to tag someone for the 8 things meme, but I can’t remember who’s done it. If you haven’t done it, do some soul searching and fess up! Or show us your jugs, whichever you choose!!!

A Backpack from my Friends

14 Comments / October 4, 2007 February 18, 2011 / Sewing

This blog world is a funny place. In July, Holly wrote a post about her friend Cheryl, Cheryl’s harley, and the “bulging knapsack on her back.” So, with that knapsack image fresh in my mind, and being smitten with Holly’s La Belle Rose Collection, I did the only thing I could. I suggested that the La Belle Rose fabric would make a cool backpack for Cheryl because all the black in the fabric would coordinate with the Cheryl’s black leather Harley outfit.

And presto-chango Holly produces a backpack out of La Belle Rose fabric and a Cindy Taylor Oates pattern on her very next blog post. (And btw Holly, all this time I’ve been thinking that you or a minion threw that backpack together in four days. As I’m reviewing your blog to set up the links here, I notice that you posted after my comment (I rarely ever make it back to the comments section on other posts) that Cindy Taylor Oates had already made that backpack. So that’s how you got that backpack so fast! Don’t worry though — you haven’t burst my bubble — I still believe you could whip that backpack up on short notice — you’re still the Lakehouse Goddess!)

Back to this story…I didn’t even know Cindy Taylor Oates had a backpack pattern. But I’m thinking, it’s just what I need! ‘Cause when I have my work trips to NJ and I go into NYC to go shopping, I always have to lug my laptop around with me. (Everyone knows you can’t leave your laptop in your hotel room and if you leave it in the trunk of your car, some slimeball will steal it — been there, done that.) That heavy laptop will be so much easier to handle hanging on my back, rather than my shoulder. So I ordered the backpack pattern and searched my stash for a fun backpack worthy fabric. And whaddyaknow, right there in my stash is one of my favorite fabrics — this adorable candy print by none other than Holly herself.

I love this candy fabric. I love the bright colors. And what’s not to love about candy? I’ve loved it from the first time I laid eyes on it. I first saw it in a quilt at a shop, but they’d sold out of the fabric. My wonderful quilty peep Jewels was with me that day, she took note of how much I loved that fabric, and a few weeks later she found some and sent it to me. Thanks again Jewels, you’re a sweetie!

I think I got a little carried away on the size of the monogram on this backpack — it could certainly be a little smaller. And lucky for me, along the selvedges of one of the candy prints, there was a candycane-like print. I used that print to make the piping that lines the edges of the backpack. It’s wrinkly looking now, but it will work itself out.

Pretty goofy for a woman of a “certain age” to have a candy print backpack, huh? I don’t care. Everyone knows, as you get older, you’re entitled to be more childish!

XOXO,
Anna

Catching Up

22 Comments / October 1, 2007 February 18, 2011 / Chat, Travel

I’ve been busy trying to catch up on what all of you have been doing. Maybe blogland should have designated posting days so that I don’t get so far behind everytime I take a break! We had a great weekend visiting TheSecondChild for Parent’s Weekend. It’s always fun to check up on him and his friends. There were dinners out (big treat for college child — away from cafeteria food), a tailgate party and a football game. And some re-arranging of the apartment furniture. The boys don’t seem to have the decorating gene. Furniture just gets placed awkwardly. Now, the tv is visible from all seating locations. ;-)

On the way there, I decided we’d take a 10 minute detour off of the freeway and visit a new little quilt/yarn shop I’d been reading about on this blog. The shop is Clementine’s and I sort of snuck up on Camilla as she didn’t know who I was.

It was my first blog meet and it really made my day! (I didn’t take any pictures of the inside of the shop because Camilla has some really nice pictures on her blog.) I introduced myself and we had a nice time visiting. She was even kind enough to entertain TheManoftheHouse while I browsed the fabrics. She has a great collection of Westminster fabrics — a VERY needed addition to Indiana as they’re so hard to find here. I browsed, we talked, I browsed, I selected a fabric, we talked, her 2-yr. old Eli wandered by (so cute!), we talked, I selected another fabric, we talked, I selected 2 more fabrics, she and TheManoftheHouse talked, I selected another fabric (someone please stop me!), we talked, she helped me select a Kaffe Fassett print for Magoo, I ended up in the knitting books, she chatted more with TheManoftheHouse, I selected knitting book, we talked about her AGA (which I didn’t even know you could get here in the states), I browsed, ….you get the picture! Ms. Cami — your shop is going to be a great success — you have mastered the fine art of making the customer feel at home — we browse, we chat, we buy!!! LOL!

I was VERY impressed! Supposedly, all five children were lurking somewhere. They must be very well behaved as we didn’t hear a peep out of them. Speaking of the children, what happened to that cute little Eli? Hey — here he is:

Is that TOO CUTE or what? He fell asleep right by the front door. No wonder we didn’t hear him anywhere! After we were done, we quietly left and once outside I had to take another picture of sleeping little Eli — you can see what it looked like if you went walking by the outside of the shop:

Thank you Ms. Cami for a very delightful visit. I’ll definitely be back — hopefully next time with Quilty Peeps in tow.

I did manage to get a little sewing done on the trip. I usually do most of the driving when we travel, but this time I made an obvious discovery — if I don’t drive, I can sew or knit! Duh. I always thought it would make me car sick, but no! I did forget to look up often though, so I sort of feel like I missed part of the trip. I’ll have to work on the fine art of sewing AND paying attention next time.

One last thing — the sweet and innocent hysterical Isabelle has issued a “Show Us Your Jugs” challenge. Much to the dismay of TheManoftheHouse, I don’t have a jug collection. Just two reasonably small (and not the same size, I might add) jugs:

Inspired by Isabelle, I’m definitely thinking of starting a jug collection — you must go see Isabelle’s jugs — they’re very lovely! And certainly, I’d like to encourage all of you, dear readers, to “Show Us Your Jugs”!!!
Until next time, when I promise I’ll actually have sewing content,
XOXO,
Anna

Month: October 2007