Time keeps rolling on....

I can't believe it's September already. I had an incredibly busy summer.

I planted a beautiful garden.
Part of the squash garden came up early from seeds of last years' plants.
Mark and I put a cover on it this year, to hopefully protect it from the deer. It worked pretty good right over the tomatoes, because of the sticks. But right in the middle, where they could press the netting down,they still reached the plants on the end and ate them. I'll outsmart them next year. I didn't harvest a ton of stuff. When I came back from vacation, the squash looked like it had developed some disease and started to go downhill from there.

After recovering from the shower, I spent most of June baking cookies for my niece's wedding. The wedding was July 16, and I was determined to finish baking by the end of June. The plan was to have time to work on the quilt I was making for their wedding. Of course, other things interfered, like doing my job, and still doing PT for the foot. I spent one entire morning buying tickets to go and see Paul McCartney in August. But I digress.

I made about 230 dozen cookies. I baked 58 dozen ladylock shells. I took photos so I could make a tutorial on how to make ladylocks. Eric and Zack and Gretchen (Zack's girlfriend) filled them and made them cookies. Gretchen and Zack made oreo balls in exchange for thumbprints for her sister's wedding. (Her sister got married the day after Madeline). Eric iced 14 dozen Maid of Honor cookies for me because my hands were cramping. My mother-in-law made 46 dozen cookies (she's the Pizelle maker). My other volunteers made another 100 dozen cookies. I also made mincemeat cookies in remembrance of my mother (our traditional Christmas cookie). Needless to say, it was a successful cookie table at the wedding.
(This is one of three tables) I would do it differently next time, like traying the cookies myself so they'd all have a container to go home in.

In the meantime, I was working on a queen sized quilt for Madeline and her new husband Zach. Her husband is an artist and has made quilts for Madeline and his family. At the rehearsal dinner, he made prints of two of his paintings, one of the church and one of Stone Harbor and they gave them to family and friends they as a special gift.


At one point I had hoped to finish the quilt before our vacation at the end of July. Clearly, as time went on, it became quite clear I was going to be hard pressed to finish the top, while I was baking cookies. My friend Jenny offered to help me out by cutting and sewing while I was baking. So for two afternoons, she came over and spent about 10 hours of her time, sewing strip sets and cutting 2" segments. When I finished making the cookies at the end of June, Jenny came and helped me lay the blocks out.

I started sewing blocks, because everything was ready to sew. Because of her help, I was able to take the top on vacation with us and present it to Madeline and Zach. They loved it. It was a beautiful moment, and when I started to tell them about the quilt, and why I chose the colors, I got all choked up.


So we spent a fun vacation at Sea Isle City this year. It's a busier place than Stone Harbor but it's still the beach and we had fun. I had my first mani and pedi with my sister Patty. Of course I chose fuchsia for my feet.

In August, after arriving home, I went to see my Cardiologist who is monitoring my cholesterol and he told me that because my Apolipoprotein B number is low, I don't have to worry about being as aggressive about my high LDL since I can't tolerate any of the drugs they give me. I promised to exercise, lose weight and keep improving my lifestyle and made an appointment for next year.

On August 18, 2010, Paul McCartney opened the Consol Energy Center (the new home of the Pittsburgh Penguins). I'll miss the Civic Arena for its' unique looks, but not for concerts. Beautiful new venue for the Penguins. Paul was awesome and I cried several times during the concert. One was when he started to sing "Close your eyes, and I'll kiss you..." It just brings back my entire childhood. Then I cried when he sang the song he wrote for John Lennon, and again when he was singing the Long and Winding Road. It was fantastic, and Paul McCartney is quite a showman. The movie screens on each side of the screen make you forget he's the size of a peanut on the stage. I loved it.

Finally the weather has broken. We can open our windows at night and there's a small breeze coming through. I'm busy cleaning up my desk today so I can finish the other border on the quilt and then start quilting it. Now that I've given them a glimse of the quilt, I'm anxious to finish it.

Have a great day.

It's been a long time!

You must've thought I fell off the face of the earth, it's been so long since my last post. I've been working on a project for my niece, Madeline's, wedding shower, that I was hosting at my house. I couldn't blog about it or post photos of it. The shower was on the 22nd of May and was a great success. I used this great umbrella fabric I bought at a quilt show and made "Snap Happy" bags by Stitchin' Sisters. I made 40 bags and filled the bags with the 40 scrubbies I crocheted since my last post. I added mints and a Revolution teabag (comes in a cute little box) to the umbrella bag. It was an awesome favor. I asked the cake store to use the fabric to decorate the cake.

Carol's Pastry Shop in Zelienople did a wonderful job. She added some purple umbrellas because Madeline's colors are purple and green. Here's a photo of the what was stuffed in the bags.


I'm now making cookies for the wedding and coordinating the other cookie bakers for the wedding, so that we don't all make the same thing. I've recruited a couple people to help me bake. I'm making a cookie every other day and have mapped out a schedule of how much time I have before the wedding. I researched all my cookbooks and made a list of a good variety of cookies. I have all the recipes ready in case anyone offers to make something.

Right now, I am sewing a little every day, making a cookie, and still going to PT for my plantar faschitis. Online, I'm fascinated by the Baby Osprey that you can look at live at The Chestertown Spy. If the camera isn't working, go to the Home page and click on the Osprey Cam, sometimes they change the link. During the day, it seems like there's always a bird in front of the camera. At night though, the little birds are moving around and you can see them much better. They really blend in with the nest during the day.

I'm also checking in everyday to the Inspired by Iceland website where you can click on different live camera views of cool places in Iceland. This link will take you to the geysir and you can navigate on the map to other places to visit.

Check out the links and have a great day.

Slow down the pace

Well, here it is, almost the middle of December and I've not much to write about. I hate shopping and sometimes feel like I have brain freeze when it comes to buying things for other people. For myself, for the first time, I feel like I've reached a point in my life where I want to stop having so many possessions, (this doesn't include fabric, of course). I spent the first half of my life acquiring things, and now will spend the 2nd half figuring out what to do with them, and how to get rid of things.

Do you have any rituals during the holidays - something you do every year at this time? Not the trimming the tree type stuff. Every year during the Christmas holidays, I take out my VHS tape of Gidget (the original with Sandra Dee and James Darren) and watch it (by myself naturally, or the 4 guys in my house would just laugh at how corny it is). I just LOVE that movie, and it reminds me of my childhood and loving Moondoggie, and when just a kiss at the end of the movie was enough to sustain your dreams of true love for eons. I'm waiting for them to release it in the "movie box" format, so the look on Moondoggie's face at the end, when he stands up and first sees her, doesn't get cut off like it does on TV. I noticed that AMC has been broadcasting the movie (in the correct format) during the holidays. My hairdresser and I were discussing movies and she told me how her young daughter loves this really old movie - Gidget - and just finished watching it over Christmas vacation. I just started laughing and explained this was my Christmas ritual. Strange but true. Did you know that Jim Morel of CNN is Jame Darren's son? He does look like him at little. (His dad is cuter.)

I also have one ritual that I forget to do sometimes, but am going to make sure I carry on with this year. After the tree is decorated, we turn off the room lights, and turn on all the tree lights to admire them. My mom would go over to the front door and "knock, knock, knock" on the door, (waiting for someone to say "come in"), and then enter the room, exclaiming "oh, what a beautiful tree." It was a silly little thing, and I still do it, but I want to make sure I carry it on now that she's gone.

In our family, we always make Mincemeat Cookies from the Kay Neuman recipe of long ago. They are the best cookies. No relative ever got to taste them because we ate them all before company ever made it to our house during the Christmas season. These days, I've changed the recipe slightly, to make it trans fat free. (gotta be healthy, y'know, even when you're overeating.....)

Take a break, sit down, and have a cup of tea. Enjoy each other. Stop and absorb the moments you spend together. They may not come again.