Chat – Page 44 – Thimbleanna

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

GOATS!!!

14 Comments / September 26, 2007 February 18, 2011 / Chat

Look, Look, LOOKie!!!! I’ve got my very own GOOOOOAAAATTTTSSSS!!!! Isn’t it exciting???

Aren’t they cute???

Whaaat? You don’t believe me? Just because I’m a city girl? Well, I do. I have my very own goats.

Ok….so I don’t have to feed them — they’re on notecards! The very fabulous Ms. Rohanknitter sent them to me ’cause it was my lucky day a few weeks ago and I just happened to be the first one on her blog to guess that she and her family were going to Wrigley Field to see the Cubs play baseball. (Isabelle, you must forgive the excitement of my run-on sentence!) Just look at all the goodies she sent me.

Goat notecards, cute little paper folders, notepaper with pen (check out those cute sheep on the green ribbon) and some beautiful hot pink extra fine merino yarn. I love hot pink. Thank you, Thank you Karen, for the super prize package! And HOW did you know that Hot Chocolate is my drink of choice? Not tea, not coffee — my very favorite is Hot Chocolate! You Rock, My Dear!

And if that weren’t enough luck, I’ve won two other contests in the last month. They say luck runs in threes and it must be so. (I joked with Marianne that I couldn’t enter her contest because I’d won two this month and I wanted to save my third win to go and buy a lottery ticket — but du-uh, I forgot — I’ve already won three contests.) Anyway, I won two beautiful patterns — the very sweet Cottage Garden Bag from Cinderberry Stitches and the ever-so-cool Magoo from Melly & Me. Thank you — all of you girls — I love everything and you’re all so generous! Please go and visit all of their blogs — they’re all full of great ideas and inspiration.
And also, don’t forget to check in with Hollycakes . She’s going to be having some giveaways (I heard the WS- word — shhhh, Williams Sonoma — among others) and some voting. And besides, you have to get over there to see her very hip, trend-setting cats in their bibs! Scruff saw those bibs and just started whining — he wants to feel the Lakehouse Bib Love too.
XOXO,
Anna

A Neighborhood Ride

16 Comments / September 24, 2007 February 18, 2011 / Chat

I hope you’ve had a very lovely weekend! Ours was picture perfect and I was able to spend the days puttering around doing the things I love most: mowing, cleaning out the car (not a whole lotta love there!), and sewing. And last but not least, catch up on some blogs!

Last week, Mrs. Staggs challenged us to get out into our neighborhoods and notice the things around us. And take some pictures. I was busy sewing in the dungeon and SweetiePie came and asked me if I’d like to go for “a tandem.” Why yes I would! And it would be the perfect opportunity to do as Mrs. Staggs suggested and take some neighborhood pictures. Before we even got started, I took a quick picture of a rather portly Scruff over there on the right — he was a little miffed at having been left behind.
SweetiePie and I went to the garage and got out the old blue tandem that belongs to BigDaddy and MeMum. I love to ride the tandem, especially when someone else is in the driver’s seat! We had a wonderful time, but I must tell you that little SweetiePie is a little ruthless when at the helm of a bicycle-built-for-two. No slow-poke touring for Miss SweetiePie. No-o-o. She’s a motivated dare-devil. I was a little concerned that perhaps I shouldn’t have brought my camera along — the odds of crashing with the poor girl dragging me along behind her were probably pretty high!

I did attempt to take a few pictures. I begged SweetiePie to stop, but she was on a mission. Have you ever tried to take pictures while you’re pedaling? ‘Taint easy! Most of them looked like this:

Can you tell what that is? It’s a neighbor’s friendly little dog. Sure wish I could have patted him on the head and begged him to pose nicely for a picture! Great shot as we zoomed by.

I did manage to get two, non-blurry pictures. Some pretty pink flowers at the bottom of someone’s driveway and a pedestrian crossing sign. That sign was put in place just for daredevils like SweetiePie — to slow down and don’t run over the poor people crossing the road.

Before long, we were back home so I took a quick picture of my Rose of Sharon before the sun slipped too far behind the trees. We had a fun time — thanks for the idea Mrs. Staggs! I need to remember to get out in my own neighborhood more often.

Before I go, just wanted to mention a few things I saw while blog-surfing:

Portebello Pixie is making some very cute Halloween garlands.
Check out Chookyblue‘s blog. Her camera is in for a multi-week repair so I casually suggested that if each of her blog friends would send her a picture, she’d have blog-fodder to last until the camera was returned. She ran with that idea and she’s done some funny stuff. I’m very impressed that she managed to come up with a topic for mug shots of pinocchio.
Have you seen these little hats before? I think they’d be pretty fun to make.
I think I’ve probably told you this before, but I just love these gratitude posts.
And, be sure you keep up with the Blog-able Feast by Hollycakes — rumor has it there are give-aways in the near future!

Happy Monday!

XOXO,
Anna

Cupcakes

12 Comments / September 10, 2007 February 18, 2011 / Chat, Cupcakes, Travel

Boy, I feel like I’ve been MIA. It’s only been four days, but it seems like a lot more. Especially when I go to bloglines and see that several of you have posted multiple times in those 4 days! Sigh. Behind again.

I spent the weekend cleaning. Most of the time in the kitchen doing some much needed, heavy cleaning. And then, because it was so clean, I had to make some cupcakes.

I’ve had the Magnolia cookbook for a few years now and I’ve been meaning to try their cupcake recipe. You know, see if the homemade version tastes like the bakery version. Oh. My. Gosh. They were fabulous. SweetiePie declared them just like the original. Clearly, we don’t have the decorating flair that the Magnolia bakers have, so we’ll have to work on that.

In other cupcake news:

Did you notice the new little cupcake picture over there to the right? It’s no longer coming soon — it’s here! This week. This Friday to be exact. Tune in with Ms. Hollycakes and her baker’s dozen for some fun stuff on Friday. (I love Holly’s new banner — go feast your eyes!)
I think I want this pan. If a normal sized cupcake is good, wouldn’t a jumbo one be better? I saw this one somewhere in a stand-up version — you make two of them and put them together — very cute.
Check out www.cupcakefun.com for more cupcake inspiration.

I’ll leave you with a picture of SweetiePie pinching a cupcake!

XOXO,
Anna

Back to Work.

19 Comments / September 4, 2007 February 18, 2011 / Chat, Sewing

All good things come to an end, and now, it’s back to work. Enjoyable time off is always too short and fleeting. I didn’t get as much done this weekend as I would have liked, but I had some good family time, and that’s what’s most important.

Yesterday, we all met at BigDaddy’s and split firewood so he’ll be stocked for the winter. Goofy me, I didn’t take my camera. I was very sorry about that as the picture of TheFirstChild and BigBurlyBIL both swinging axes at the same time would have been a good one. They worked up a soaking sweat chopping wood, while TheManoftheHouse, SweetiePie, and I picked up the pieces and stacked them. After all the work, we had a little cookout. MyDadLovesMeBestSister outdid herself by bringing four fabulous salads. Bratwurst, end-of-season corn on the cob and Cowboy Baked Beans rounded out the menu and filled us over the top.
I made Karen’s S’more dessert. Being a S’more fanatic, when I saw Karen’s recipe I knew I had to make it. It was a VERY BIG hit — even with TheManoftheHouse who doesn’t usually like desserts. Karen jokes about all the Fudge sauce — holy cow it takes two bottles. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think it was almost too sweet for me. I would have been happy with more ice cream and less fudge sauce. I was overruled though — everyone loved it just as it is!

I did manage to get a little bit of sewing in over the weekend. Back in May, I saw this cute celery crisper on Monica’s blog. Now, MeMum makes The Best green salads on the planet. They’re always crisp and delicious. She washes the lettuce, spins it, and then wraps it up in a flour sack towel and puts it in the fridge for 20 or 30 minutes before dinner. So, when I saw the celery crisper, I thought how fun it would be to make a lettuce crisper for her. I mentioned this idea to my quilty friend Junie a few months ago and she found a picture of a lettuce head similar to the one I put on this little bag. Thanks for your help Junie, MeMum thinks it’s really cute!

And one last thing, the lovely Holly has tagged me for the middle name game. Ahem. I don’t have a middle name! It’s been a long-standing tradition in our family that the girls don’t get middle names. There have been a few dissenters though. One of my cousins, feeling gypped, just made one up when we were little and it stuck. And MyDadLovesMeBestSister gave one of her girls a middle name. ??? The one without the middle name was feeling left out however, so she now has one too. I’m afraid if I’d had girls, they would have been middle nameless. Tradition, you know. Oops, I digress, another tradition around here.
Anyway, I read somewhere that if you don’t have a middle name you should just use one that you like. I’ve always loved the name Tess (thank you Thomas Hardy), so I’ll use that one. Anna Tess sounds pretty stupid, but that’s not the point now, is it?

T – Tired. Had to go back to work today, that makes me tired.

E – Embroidery, of course. I LOVE embroidery.

S – Sewing, I REALLY love sewing. Anything. All kinds.

S- Sorry. I’m very sorry I don’t have something really incredible to blog about today. Like maybe I whipped out a beautiful quilt this weekend. Nope. But I sure thought a lot about it, does that count?

Now, I’m supposed to tag one person for each letter in the name. Just so that those who are blog-less don’t get left out, I’m tagging Judy (MSN Judy are you there?) and the three quilty peeps, Gurney, Junie, and Jewels who can play in my comments if they want. Let’s hear it for your middle names!
XOXO,
Anna