Thursday, November 30, 2006

ABCs about me

I might have done this before, but I thought there were some good categories this time around...
I found this at the Mother-daughter blog, where they are celebrating Arts and Crafts Day today. Unfortunately, I won't have much time to be crafty since I have a bowling tournament after school :-( Maybe I'll get some knitting done in front of the TV tonight!


A - Age:mid-30s
B - Band listening to right now:nothing...I'm at school
C - Career future:solid, LOL. Math teachers are always in demand!
D - Dad’s name:Kevin
E - Easiest person to talk to: my hubby
F - Favorite song:Right now it's "Would you go with me" by Josh Turner
G - Gummy Bears or Gummy Worms: Bears
H - Hometown: I claim Phoenix, but I was born in the UK
I - Instruments: flute, my voice
J - Job: teacher
K - Kids: 1 baby girl!
L - Longest car ride ever:from Washington D.C. to Phoenix AZ. Longest at one stretch was from the beach in North Carolina to Lubbock TX (yes, I was young and insane!)
M - Mom’s name: Mary
N - Number of pets you’ve had: 10...4 dogs and 6 cats (only 3 at any one time)
O - Oldest friend: that I talk to regularly...Kat (10+ years), that I send Christmas cards to...Liza (high school friend)
P - Phobia: being in a small space (such as airplane bathrooms, LOL, we talked about this at Thanksgiving!)
Q - Quote: The universe is transformation – our life is what our thoughts make it. (Marcus Aurelius)
R - Reason to smile: holding Baby K
S - Song you sang last: the Sanctus from my church Hymnal
T - Time you wake up: with a 3-month old it's every few hours all night! My alarm officially goes off at 5:30 and I hit snooze twice, so I'm out of bed at 5:48
U - Unknown fact about me: I was on TV twice with my college choir...the 1992 CMA Awards and the 1992 Miss USA pageant
V - Vegetable you hate: beets
W - Worst habit: procrastinating
X - X-rays you’ve had: dental, spine
Y - Yummy food: pasta, ice cream, dark chocolate (I'd die on the Atkins diet, LOL!)
Z - Zodiac sign: Libra

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Hodge Podge

Here's the beautiful girl in her christening dress! The chiffon overlay had embroidered flowers on it. Baby K entertained herself by putting fistfuls in her mouth.


I did not knit this sweater, but I needed some fiber content :-)


Grandma made it for Baby K. With a cold front moving through, there's a good chance she'll get to wear it while it fits, too!

Happy feet:

I thought these shoes would show off my hand-knit socks...if I ever finish another pair!


And finally, our lone cat, all ready for winter curled up on a fleece blanket. B. went to the Humane Society today to see if they had picked up our run-away...no such luck, but he did see several possibilities for a new addition! We decided to be strong and wait until after Christmas to decide if we need another animal. We may have our hands full when Baby K gets mobile!!

Friday, November 24, 2006

Leftovers

I couldn't post the Thanksgiving menu until today, because I don't cook. But, we always have our choice of invitations for holiday meals...my brother in law is a gourmet cook, and my dad and some buddies take charge of Thanksgiving. This year we stayed with my side of the family. Dad and buddies started the feast on Wednesday over coffee. They moved into the kitchen for two days of preparations, and we sat down to eat last night at 5pm. The buffet included tossed salad, chorizo-sweet potato stuffing, apricot herb stuffing, mashed potatoes, layered sweet potato casserole, roasted green beans, cranberry-covered pork loin and your choice of BBQ or sage-roasted turkey. Everything was DELICIOUS!!! Alas, no turkey sandwiches for me this weekend unless I go to the sub shop ;-)

So, my leftovers consist of quilting UFOs. I had some time yesterday, so I poked around and found the bag of scraps from a stack-n-whack. I used the Treasure Box pattern. When I started sewing the extra blocks, I didn't want to take the time to do y-seams, so I left out the green sashing. I have a couple more kaleidoscope squares to put together, then I can play with the layout. I have a few squares done with sashing, so they may become a central piece, with the extras around the edge and the remaining fabric as borders. BTW, the fabric was Alexander Henry...generally a good choice for any type of stack-n-whack/one block wonder/kaleidoscope type quilt!Besides not cooking, I don't shop...so all the bargains are available for those of you brave souls who venture forth on Black Friday and keep retail America happy. Thanks for supporting our economy :-)

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Scheduling

I wanted to sew on Sunday afternoon...it was a nice quiet afternoon at home. I got this block put together for our guild raffle next month, and then I hit a creative blockage. I have lots of UFOs, but nothing was calling to me. It seemed like too much work to get things out of the closet and figure out where I left off. Instead, I was a couch potato...sat with the baby and caught up on "Grey's Anatomy."


Gidget found a new place to nap! She is an only kitty now...our other cat, Tony, ran away. We let him out Sunday and he never came back. We're hoping he found a new home, because the alternatives are too sad. (Cars, dogs, coyotes...)

I want to say thank you to the Quilting 4 Pleasure web ring (notice the new button in my sidebar!). I have been "surfing the ring" and leaving comments. I'm looking forward to getting to know you. If you drop by, please leave a comment so I know you were here! I try to keep the content quilty, but life (read = baby) has a way of interfering!!

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

You can't win if you don't play





I just found out that my pineapple won "Best Rookie" in our longarm guild's President's Challenge!






Everyone had the same pattern for the square-in-a-square, but we could choose our own fabrics and quilting designs. You can see my pineapple, and I used some radiating lines in the black background. The pink and yellow border had spiral flowers. The blue triangles had a wineglass pattern of interlocking half-circles, and I used parallel lines in the green outer border. There are lots of areas for improvement, LOL, but I won't point them out here. I am just going to bask in my first ribbon!

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Because I like joining things

A meme from Amy...

1. Flip to page 18, paragraph 4 in the book closest to you right now, what does it say?
"Individuals who are economic liberals and cultural conservatives tend to support government action both to promote the values of economic equality and fairness and to defend traditional values such as the family and marriage." A high school government textbook. (But I thought you taught math? Why yes, I'm multi-talented! I teach both!)

2. If you stretch out your left arm - as far as possible, what are you touching?
Nothing for about 20 feet...my desk is in the far right corner of the classroom facing the students, so there is open space to my left.

3. What's the last program you watched on tv? Local news this morning before I left for work.

4. Without looking, guess what time it is.
About 12:57...I looked a couple minutes ago when a student asked for the bathroom pass!

5. Except the computer, what can you hear right now?
Teenage angst...they had a short assignment today so most are finished and just talking about what happened at lunch.

6. When was the last time you were outside and what did you do?
An hour ago, I walked to the cafeteria with a fellow teacher. It's sunny and beautiful here in Arizona!

7. What are you wearing?
Tan pants and a staff polo shirt (navy blue)

8. Did you dream last night? If you did, what about?
I did dream, just give me a minute to remember...I think I was getting ready for a formal dance with someone and it was in a weird place, like on a train or something.

9. When was the last time you laughed?
Last night when our choir director was telling jokes.

10. What's on the walls, in the room you're in right now?
Whiteboards with class information and bulletin boards with cheesy posters

11. Have you seen anything strange lately?
Teenagers! I am at a typical suburban school... there are quite a few weird piercings and strange outfits.

12. What do you think about this meme?
Good job coming up with different questions!

13. What's the last film you saw?On TV or at the cinema?
B. and I watched "Paper Clips" - a documentary about a Holocast project in rural Tennessee. DVD.

14. If you became a multimillionaire, what would you do with the money?
Give alot of it to a charity...probably something like World Vision. Oh, and buy my mom's quilt store!

15. Tell us something about yourself that most people don't know.
I have lots of freckles and as a kid, I imagined patterns with them...like the little dipper around my belly button, LOL.

16. If you could change ONE THING in this world, without regarding politics or bad guilt - what would it be?
Acceptance of others, especially people with different beliefs

17. Do you like dancing?
I haven't done any in YEARS. I like formal dances, like when the swing craze hit in the 90's

18. Last crafty endeavour?
Working on the batik quilt on my longarm

19. What do you want your children’s names to be, girl/boy?
I have always thought Hannah and Gabrielle were pretty for girls and Steven and Michael for boys...but then we named our first Kendra because we wanted a K name in honor of her birthmother. So, I've realized it's one of those things that you can't plan too far in advance!

20. What amused you recently?
My students were amazed that finding the volume of a 3-D object is so easy. They kept asking "So, what's the trick? When does it get hard?" I love it when my remedial class thinks something is easy!

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Baby Bunny #3

Here is Baby K at 3 months old. I wanted to post a link to her 1 month and 2 month pictures, but Blogger has archived my posts by month, rather than individually. If you want the comparison, you'll just have to scroll through the previous months. So Sorry! Or just wait for the six month retrospective ;-)

In cotton-related news...Friday was NOT a good day at the longarm! I pinned on my batik quilt (which you've seen pictures of occasionally.) As I was stitching in the ditch, I noticed the borders are kind of wavy. Bleh. But, understandable since I sewed the borders at Grandma's house while Kendra screamed bloody murder in the background. (She was having a Very Bad Day. We blame the poodle.) Then, as I rolled the quilt, I noticed the batting was all bunched up in the center. Grrr. I tried to smooth it out with a yardstick, but still had problems. I advanced a few more rows, and then I had the brilliant idea to unzip the canvas lead from the quilt top, which allowed me direct access to the batting, which I could smooth out. Unfortunately, by this point, my yardstick adventures had stretched the batting and also made a small hole. But, I can live with a thin spot! As I rolled up the quilt, I then noticed a MAJOR pleat in the backing! Man am I upset. No way am I going to rip out my stitching in the ditch to fix that. I thought the whole point of putting the quilt on the longarm was to AVOID problems like that! So, this is not an heirloom effort. It goes in the "someday" pile after class on Saturday...as in maybe someday I will fix it (yeah right!!)

So, my lessons are to have a second pair of hands help me roll the backing on smoothly, and to remember how useful zippers are before reaching for the yardstick. The good news is that once I started free-motion quilting, everything has been going fine.

Thursday, November 09, 2006

TGIF (almost)



Tragedy struck today as I was handing out test papers. A paper cut right on the crease of my right-hand pinky finger! The picture doesn't do it justice, of course. I wonder if Kodak has ever explored a left-handed camera??

I think knitting will be on hold for a few days. The thought of yarn sliding over that spot makes me cringe!






So, Jaywalker #1 is stalled here. I have a couple more rows before I start the main part of the foot. I don't think I picked up stitches correctly along the heel flap, but I was too lazy to rip it out...something about tinking around dpns was not very appealing!

(I always tell beginning quilters that you only have to please your inner critic. If something isn't perfect, ask yourself if it's something that you can live with. If yes, move on. If no, fix it.)





And here is the DBP (daily baby photo). We are quickly busting through the toes of the 6 month sizes - yikes!!

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Flashback

The image that popped into my head today as I watched my students during study hall was "The Breakfast Club" . . . Ally Sheedy making it snow on her drawing and then pouring pixie sticks on her sandwich. Classic 80's!! That is one of my all-time favorite movies. Of course, I had the obligatory crush on Judd Nelson. Maybe that's why I always dated tall lanky guys?!?

To continue the retrospective...we were channel-surfing this weekend and came across the Top 100 songs of the 80's. WOW - that took me back! Lots of big hair and bangle bracelets, bright colored and layered sweatshirts with one shoulder hanging off.

Sorry, no crafty or baby pictures. The only time I have to get on the computer now is at school, and I have no upload capability. Of course, there is no sewing going on either! Although I have another quilt deadline...the batik I showed in September needs to get on the longarm and be done by the 18th! Luckily we have a school holiday on Veteran's Day.

All my blogging friends are reminding everyone to GO VOTE! I turned in ballot number 53 at my polling place, and it was about 6:30am! I had to get up early because my bowling club has a tournament this afternoon and I was afraid I wouldn't make it to the polling place in the evening. And we had the pleasure of voting on a national-record-setting 19 ballot initiatives here in Arizona!

Friday, November 03, 2006

The first holiday has come and gone...

The caption on Baby K's Halloween onesie said, "I'm so cute it's scary!"

One of my friends bought her this cute princess outfit. The skirt is fuzzy and pink. Unfortunately, most of her clothes only get worn once at this point...she's growing so fast!

She will never have to beg us for a pony! Baby K and Daddy named this one "Penelo-pony."

I have done NO sewing in over a week. I'm hoping to take advantage of my mom's new quilt studio soon...a 20' by 20' new room with a huge cutting table and design wall. I figure the grandparents will be delighted if I come over with the baby, drop her in their laps (literally!) and escape for a few hours.

I have managed to knit a few more rows on my Jaywalkers...ready to start the first heel flap! Knitting is pretty easy to squeeze in during short baby naps. I took the plunge and pre-registered for the Rocking Socks 2007 kits...Socks That Rock yarn is sold by Blue Moon Farms...and I have seen such lovely stuff from Cara! Payment is due in January, so I have time to see if I can justify $200 for 6 pairs of socks. Yikes! But, it is hand-dyed yarn, and exclusive patterns...I always try to equate things like this to movies. I pay about $15 to spend 2-3 hours at the movies. It takes me ALOT longer than 2 hours to knit a pair of socks, so at $30-40 per pair, I am getting my money's worth in entertainment dollars! (notice it doesn't take much to rationalize a yarn purchase, LOL)