Saturday, January 31, 2009

In my ladies' Bible class we were talking about the fact that life IS a journey and that it's not that you actually ARRIVE anywhere...it's about how you travel. We were talking about how easy it is to fall into the trap and say we'll do this or that WHEN blah blah blah is in place...I'll be able to keep the house clean and have people over when the kids are gone...I'll think about trying to please God when I'm not so busy building my career at work...I'll spend time with my kids/friends/whomever when I retire and don't have to juggle work outside the home and housework......you get the idea. With all the things that January brings (year-end stuff, quarterly reports, annual reports, W-2's, 1099's, etc) MY own particular journey has been pretty hectic lately. However, I'm happy to report that Beth is coming out here today, and we've declared it to be a fun day. She's near the end (hopefully) of a bout with allergies and bronchitis and I'm having some similar problems, so we're going to start with a lovely cold, thick, rich milkshake that's soothing to the throat as well as to the psyche. (so deliciously decadent!) No restaurant-bought milkshake can even BEGIN to match the ones I make at home like the ones I grew up with. Good ol' Nestle's Quik and milk and rich vanilla ice cream. MMMmmmmm. We may watch movies, we may play with quilting stuff, we may stroll around outside and do some gardening planning. We may even get wild and go somewhere - like to Michael's in Murfreesboro (about an hour away) since my fairy godmother sent me a 40% off coupon!
I was fascinated with these little Pennie Pockets and just had to try them. Here are my first attempts. Sorry the pictures aren't better - and I even went outside and froze just to use natural light and most of the inside ones were better! The verses are on the same yellow stripe fabric that's inside the pocket with the red dots on the back. (wanted to use something different than the same yellow so it would show up better, but it was all I had handy where the color/pattern weren't too strong for the words to show up) Anyway, the colors are nice and bright and cheery. There are so many things you could do with them that I am determined to make more of them! They cry out for something to be put in them...so I immediately thought of little cheer-you-up things and chose some Psalms and other verses....I really like these with the same thick insides used in the quilt postcards because it's a substantial thing to pull out and look at, but that makes them so big you can't really get many in the pocket. So I may try just a heavy version of regular fusible stuff.
Happy Saturday!

Blessings of the day: sunshine, birds singing and enjoying the feeders, a kindred spirit daughter

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

A couple more Christmas items . . . dishtowels using a great pattern I found unexpectedly!
These kinds of gifts are not valuable in monetary terms, but they are very valuable in terms of good thoughts and caring thoughts and energy and time invested to bring another person pleasure. Quilters and stitchers seem to me to be among the most generous folks around, and I feel humbled to be even on the fringe of this. As I read blogs and learn of the lives of others and the things they do and the things that are done for them, I feel such a renewed sense of faith in people. Truly, good people are in the majority and the ones in the news are in the minority - which has been put to me as being a good thing - as in, it's good that bad folks make the news simply because it means they ARE the exception to the rule. Kind of a weird way of looking at things, but thankfully somewhat true.
Different topic entirely . . . I think I've mentioned that my daughter, Beth, has taken up running. In November she completed her first half-marathon (13.1 miles) (on a morning when we had a matinee performance of A Christmas Carol as well as an evening performance, the goofy girl!!!!). I was tickled to see the shirt she wore - as a kid she loved watching the tv show Wonder Woman, and her sleeping bag was a Wonder Woman one - and she made sure to take it to college for those times when tons of folks are in one room or tons of girls go to someone's house for the weekend (lots of different girls have used it here at our house for sure) {yes, she'd graduated to a "real" dark blue one for her junior and senior high years but got over that in college, teehee} Anyway, she's a wonder woman to me. I am so proud of her.



Blessings: a wonderful daughter, friends both quilty and otherwise, faith

Monday, January 5, 2009

I got a lovely and unexpected present from Mel! I feel as though we're old friends because of one of those interesting connections you sometimes come across - she and Don moved to Michigan for his job with a plant that other friends of mine went there to build. (Janet, who worked at the same doctors' office I do for a number of years, lived in the UP for several years and she and her family moved there because hubby Joe worked for a huge construction company that sent him there to build a particular plant. Janet talked a lot about how beautiful it was up there and how friendly everyone was and just generally how much they loved it. When I first found Mel's blog and saw that she was in the UP, I felt an immediate connection . . . and then found out there really WAS a connection! Just one of life's serendipities . . .) It's a covered planner! She made the quilted-of-course cover and stamped the cards (and chickadees are probably my favorite birds!) and wrapped it all up in gingham tissue! Isn't that just the greatest thing? I was having a fuzzy picture day but wanted to show the special tissue. I think another picture is a little better . . .


The planner is a really nice one with Bible verses and short little inspirational writings, places for tracking prayer requests and answers, and Mel even wrote in little quilty thoughts here and there throughout the year! Inside the cover she even made little pockets for pens and highlighters!

An altogether lovely surprise when I was in the midst of closing out a month for 1 corporation, a calendar year for 2 corporations, and fiscal year for 1 of the corporations!! Thank you, Melanie!