Chat – Page 20 – Thimbleanna

Happy Spring!

33 Comments / March 20, 2012 June 22, 2013 / Chat

Wow — can you believe it? How can it be the first day of spring already? Or, in our case, we seem to have just skipped spring altogether and jumped into summer. Our weather has been unbelievable this week. Our trees are even leafing out. Here’s our pretty little crabapple tree in the backyard. We didn’t even have enough of a winter this year to freeze the little crabapples off of the limbs.

The trees are leafing out SO early this year. Last year, we didn’t really see leaves until MyDadLovesMeBestSister’s birthday and if you’ve been a longtime reader, you know that’s at the end of April. The good news is that I’ll be able to enjoy the beautiful crabapple blossoms this year — last year they popped out while I was at Spring Market, so I missed them. The bad news is that mowing season will be starting earlier. I’m soooo not ready for that weekly grind. ;-).

The first day of spring is a big deal here in ThimbleannaLand ’cause it’s also TheSecondChild’s birthday. Happy Birthday BigBoy!!! I made a quick little birthday trip to see him over the weekend. We had a nice dinner, cleaned the bachelor pad a bit and did some birthday shopping. On St. Patricks Day, we enjoyed a St. Patrick’s Day bagel for brunch. Love that green!

Then, on the way back home I stopped in for a quick visit with TheFirstChild and SweetiePie. More shopping and fun. I LOVE visiting my kids and I miss them terribly. I try not to think about it most of the time, or … well, I don’t know what, but it’s not happy.

Anyway, back to the routine. Now that the applique quilt is done, I’ve been trying to decide on which UFO to tackle next. Plus, I’d like to start a new project just to mix things up a bit, but I’ve been a little overwhelmed by all the inspiration out there. Analysis Paralysis. In the meantime, I’ve dragged the old bow-tie quilt back out. Maybe I’ll actually get it finished in this round of quilting. Only 3 more bow ties to go and then the borders. It really shouldn’t take THAT long — just need to buckle down and do it.

Can you tell that Bow Tie quilt is from the same decade as the applique quilt? What was your first clue? The wine and forest green LOL???

Ok. Off to quilt. Have a great week!
XOXO,
Anna

Friendship Stars

56 Comments / March 13, 2012 June 22, 2013 / Chat, Quilting

Happy Pi Day tomorrow! Are you baking any pies to celebrate? We always bring pies in to work. I’ve WAY overcooked my pecan pie (in my defense, the timer went wacko in the middle of the baking, so I had no idea how long it cooked.) And I’m making my first Banoffee Pie. All the recipes on the internet just use a can of Dulce Le Leche for the toffee part, but I found a recipe in my Sticky Chewy Messy Gooey cookbook that adds sugar and butter and vanilla to the condensed milk. And more is better, right? Here’s the toffee layer cooling — bananas and whipped cream to be added tomorrow. (Oh, Gah! That’s like one big jumbo piece of caramel. I’m going to be in Sticky Chewy Messy Gooey HEAVEN!)

Anyway, on to the Friendship Stars. Do you remember way back when Gwen Marston and Joe Cunningham used to write a column for Ladies Circle Patchwork and Quilting? Here they are in the picture that always led the column.

And see the quilt they’re quilting? When we went to Beaver Island, I saw that quilt and decided I wanted to make one. (I think it’s in one of their books, but I’ll be darned if I can find it.) I decided to get the girls in my quilt group to help me, so when it was my month to do blocks, I gave them all some fabric and they made the stars for me. That was somewhere around 1992. I put the stars all together and got started on the applique borders and then it got lost in the middle of rearing the boys.

But WooHoo! Now they’re FINALLY done. It’s embarrasing that it took 20 years, but whatever. And man, do those colors scream the 90’s or what? Those red and green borders match the wallpaper that we just tore out of the kitchen LOL.

I’m not crazy about the big plain blocks in the corners, but I didn’t have any more of the background color. And the very last border is an add-on. This quilt was originally sized to fit a king-sized bed, but now, matresses are being made deeper, so I felt it needed some extra fabric. I’d love to quilt this quilt, but it’s just too darn big. It weighs in at roughly 96″ x 108″, so I’ll happily let someone else do the quilting.

Those colors aren’t my favorites anymore, but I do love those borders. And I figure in 30 or 40 years, those colors won’t matter anyway.

It’s DONE! Yippey Skippey It’s DONE! It’s a good thing Pi Day is tomorrow, ’cause I’m going to celebrate!
XOXO,
Anna

Friday Five on Saturday {Again}

43 Comments / March 10, 2012 June 22, 2013 / Chat

So, here I am, a day late with five little tidbits:
1. The Cupcake ATM.
MyDadLovesMeBestSister told me last night that she read about some woman who owned a cupcake shop and she was pregnant with middle of the night cravings and decided it would be awesome if people could get cupcakes in the middle of the night so she’s come up with a Cupcake ATM. (Yes, I know that was a run-on sentence, that was the point. To make you as breathless as I am!) That “woman” is the owner of Sprinkles and Holeeeeey Cow! What a dream!!! Cupcakes on Demand! Check out this Video:

2. Friends are Good!
I recently won a giveaway from the VERY sweet Lisa at Periwinkle. The prize was the cute Friends are Good bag, but just look at ALL the other goodies Lisa included. Lots of products from Lush. I’d heard of Lush, but didn’t know anything about them. I did a little online search and low-and-behold we have a Lush right here in town at our big mall (ha! guess that tells you how much I go to the mall.) The whole box of goodies had a heavenly smell and I’m really excited to try these products out. There’s also some tea and an adorable hand-knit egg cozy that was cradling a Cadbury egg. Was is the operative word — that yummy egg is ALL gone. Friends ARE good — especially when they’re as lovely as Lisa. THANK YOU Lisa!

3. iAnything
Do the iPhone apps have no bounds? I’m always finding new apps and I love it. I recently installed the countdown app and I’m counting down the days until MyDadLovesMeBestSister’s birthday — I send alerts to her hubby as “48 more days until MDLMBS gets an iPhone!” ‘Cause we need to share the Luuuv. Did you know you can tell Siri to call you whatever you want? Just tell Siri “Call Me Joe” or whatever. Siri now calls me “Your Highness” and it cracks me up every time she says it. My newest crush-app is the iHandy Level.

4. Barter Books
The Angletopia website had a fun post this week about the story behind the Keep Calm and Carry On posters. Here’s a fun video to watch. I REALLLYYYY want to visit this awesome-looking bookstore!

Barter Books Website.

5. Pinterest
Have you been following all the controversy about Pinterest? I knew it wouldn’t be long before a great thing got all mucky. With very few exceptions of truly original artists, I just don’t get what all the uproar is all about. I’ve noticed that some people are preventing people from pinning images from their sites. Which is great — it’s their site and fortunately Pinterest has provided a way to prevent pinning. (If you want to protect your site, you can find out how here.) I don’t get why you’d want to do that though. Pinning means people like your stuff! Pinterest brings you more traffic. People come to your site who would have never even heard of you before. And as a user, I use pinterest to remember all the great ideas that I used to store in notebooks or folders on my hard drive (’cause let’s face it — if you post your stuff out there, even if you have that little pop-up window that says I can’t copy your picture, I can still get a copy of your photo). I have a terrible memory. So, if I can’t pin your fun ideas, and we’re not best buddies or something, I probably won’t be following your blog anymore. Not that it would be a great loss to you, but I’m betting there are others out there that feel that way.

There’s been a ton of stuff written about this. Among it all, I found THIS quote from photographer Trey Ratcliff on opensource.com that I really like:

“When it comes to sharing your photographs online, you can go in two directions. You can put small images online, watermark them and then spend some or all of the week chasing down people that have used them inappropriately.

Or, you can be like me.

Offer up all your creations in maximum and beautiful resolution to the will of the web. The web, and the universe, has a certain flow to it. You can become one with that flow and enjoy the ride. You can let the opportunity of what-can-be motivate you rather than the more poisonous fear-of-loss.”

And with that, I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

XOXO,
Anna

Zip!

43 Comments / February 19, 2012 June 22, 2013 / Chat, Sewing

Ah. So soon, another weekend has whizzed by. Why can’t weekends last 5 days and the weeks just 2 days?

It’s been a nice quiet weekend here in ThimbleannaLand. I’ve been holed up playing house — baking and sewing. I made some bread. Yum!

And, I finally had a little time this weekend to work on the table topper for our coffee table. My original thought was to do an orange peel type of pattern. I made some samples, but decided it was too busy.

So, I chose a new path. I’m not sure it’s any less busy, but I’m going with it. I was going to show you the progress, but PaulKitty plopped down right on top of it and said “No. Uh-Uh. Meow. I’m not moving.”

So, instead I’ll show you the mess I’ve been making. Cut a strip, throw the fabric onto the pile. I LOVE making a big mess with fabric!

I’m SO sad Season 2 of Downton Abbey is ending tonight. I’m going to have to find a new diversion. Suggestions Welcome!

Oh, and for those of you with blogspot blogs who are thinking of ditching that AWFUL new word verification, here’s a tip someone gave me about controlling spam. A lot of spam is targeted to older posts, so if you just shut off comments on posts that are older than two weeks, it helps control the amount of spam that you get. I had to do this a few months ago ’cause my spam plugin was causing problems with my comments. I still get some spam, but I just delete it when I get time. I figure it’s much easier for me to delete the occasional spam than for you to have to decipher some scratchy word.

Ok. Off to watch the Christmas Special! Have a good week!
XOXO,
Anna

Five on F-F-F-Saturday

23 Comments / February 4, 2012 June 22, 2013 / Chat

What.Ever. Yesterday was too busy for Five postings, so they’ll have to be a bit late this week!

1. The February Aurifil Block of the month is up! Sherri‘s block has some adorable Snowmen in Love! Skip on over to the Aurifil page and download the pattern. And after you’re done making your block, don’t forget to post a picture to the Flickr group — there are Prizes! Every Month!

2. Do you love Sally Mavor’s work like I do? I think her little felt figures are just adorable!

I was stumbling around the internet the other day and I found a fun video about her making of the Rabbitat piece above. Her detail work is amazing and the video shows some cool closeups! You can view the video HERE.

3. I was talking to my Auntie Annie last night about Lone Star dinner rolls and how much we love them. She said she searched the internet and found a knock-off recipe that was pretty good. Which made me think of how much I love O’Charley’s dinner rolls, so I searched and there’s a knock-off for them too. I’m waiting for a fun time to try them, but if you try them first, let me know!

4. I was lucky and won another giveaway! This time from Sweet DottyCookie. She makes the cutest beaded Christmas ornaments and I won one shortly before Christmas. Isn’t it beautiful? She also kindly included some fun notecards, a little chapstick holder for my keychain and some fab Green and Black’s Dark Chocolate Toffee which may or may not be melting in my mouth as we speak. Yum. Yum. Thank You Very Much Ms. Dotty!!!

5. We got a bit of snow, so a few of the gingerbread houses have been put out for squirrel food. Sadly, they’ll probably be a puddle by tomorrow ’cause it’s supposed to get warm again. This warm winter has made it so difficult to fill the squirrels full of sugar!

Have a good weekend!
XOXO,
Anna