Traveling to the Kansas State Fair

Today I packed up and sent all my items I entered in the State Fair this year. I mail them to Hutchinson and they will mail them back to me after the fair is over.

I had two big boxes of quilts, wall hangings, pillows and other misc. projects I entered. I tried to pick out the best quality pieces I have made, plus ones that were unusual or different in some way. I didn't realize how many finished samples I have piled away downstairs!

Hopefully some of them out of all 23 will win something. Dad, Jena and I are planning to go to the fair on September 14th, so I'll be anxious to find out if any of them won any ribbons. When I entered my camp quilt 2 years ago, I won a purple ribbon - Best of Show - in the machine embroidery class! That was exciting!

They probably thought I was crazy

Yesterday morning I had to take my car in to have a part put on. So knowing, I would have to about 1 1/2 hours, I took a few things to work on while I was waiting. The week before when I took my car in for them to work on, I had to wait 3 hours, so I was sure to take plenty, just in case!

At first I'm sitting in the waiting room area by myself. So I get out my MP3 player, plug in my earphones and find out the battery is dead. Time goes by much quicker if I'm listening to something, so what am I going to do now? Well, I have my computer with me, so I could power my MP3 player form my computer, but I don't have the cable - it's in my car which is being torn apart at the moment. Plan B - I have songs downloaded to my phone, so I plug my earphones into my phone, put my phone in my pocket and I'm all set!

Then I take out my computer and start to work on some business files. Too bad they don't have wireless Internet; it would have been nice to read and type emails. But I have paperwork, instruction sheets for my new quilt and my embroidery newsletter to type up for the week. By this point, there are a couple of others in the waiting room doing normal stuff like watching the tv or reading the newspaper. They look at me kinda strange sitting with a computer in my lap. But it shouldn't have looked so strange. Laptop computers are portable; I take mine about everywhere I go!

It's about 9:30; an hour and a half had passed since I had been there. So I put up my computer, expecting to be just about done waiting. I pulled out my shopping list and other things I needed to do while in Dodge and ran though in my mind what I needed to do.

I was still waiting so I pulled out some product flyers I brought and starting folding them. I always included advertising info in my packages I mail out, so I'm continually folding flyers. I had all 300 that I brought folded and it is then 10:30. Dad calls, so I have to pull out the earphones from my phone and talk to him for a couple minutes.

Thinking that it can't be much longer, I pull out my last project I brought with me. Scissors and cardstock paper. I printed the words to a song I want to teach in Sunday School and needed to cut out the letters so I could paste them onto a large posterboard.

Several people have come and gone out of the waiting room, but I'm still there and there is one other person who had been there since I had been working on my computer. When I pulled out my scissors and cardstock, the look on his face was just priceless - he must have thought I was crazy!! Here I am sitting, waiting for my car to be finished, working on my computer, then grocery shopping lists, then folding a mass of flyers and now cutting up paper!! And doing all of this with a cord connecting the phone in my pocket to my right ear!

Finally a little after 11:00, 3 hours later, my car was finished and I was able to pack up all my projects and return them to my car. I was thankful for the things I had brought to work on, even if I did look a little silly working there in the waiting room. I was able to get something done in that 3 hours time instead of just sitting and waiting! That was my great adventure for the day!

Skittles and her toys

Skittles is such a hyper cat and she is constantly flying (yes, flying!) around the house with something in her mouth! The green Christmas ribbon she dug out of a box of wrapping paper supplies from under my bead, unwrapped the whole roll of ribbon and drags it around.

The orange fluffy thing is from a pen with this orange fluffy thing on the end of it that Jena had in her room. Jena kept the pen on her desk and Skittles would jump up there and drop it to the ground to play with. The orange fluff came off the pen a long time ago and is now in several pieces here and there in the house.

When I first had Skittles, I bought a sack of 15 little toys including some bells, balls and ribbons. Now I can only find about 4-5 of them. I'm sure there are quite a few under my bed, the stove, the fridge and the washer and dryer. She bats them under there with her paw and then can't get them out! But who knows where else she has more stashed.

Yesterday when I was in Hobby Lobby, I found a package of pompoms for 20 cents in the clearance section and bought those for her. Oh, my, she just loves them. She carries them all over. Last night she jumped on my bed with it in her mouth and starts batting it around on the bed. The problem with that is that she is jumping on and off the bed (because the pompom falls on the floor and she had to jump down and drag it back up) and you can't get any sleep. I finally threw her out of my room, but a couple minutes later she was back. She finally gave up and fell asleep - at last! :)

Sometime she drives me crazy because she is into everything and wants to play with whatever I am working on, but I still love her to pieces!! :)

A day spent with Grandma

Last Saturday was a busy day! I went to Dodge early in the morning to the Farmer's Market hoping to find small cucumbers that we could use for pickles. Sadly I didn't find any, so I guess we will just have the to eat the large ones we canned and live off store pickles until next year.

Then I had a couple of stops to make for clothing alterations for a couple of ladies I am sewing for. Then it was back home to unload my car and reload my car and head to Grandma's house for the rest of the day.

Grandma just loves for us girls to come over and spend the day with her. It helps to pass the time and gives her something to do. We ate at Donna C's for lunch and then went to a fundraiser supper at the senior center for two ladies in the community that have cancer.

I took some banners I had printed Bible verses on and needed to tape them to colored cardstock to work on. I will hang them up in my Sunday School classroom; the kids enjoy seeing the colorful banners when they come in the room on Sunday morning! :)

Let's see...we played Scrabble - Grandma's favorite game and, my, is she a pro at it! I almost, just almost won. I was actually ahead for part of the game - not something that happens very often! I was ahead and winning when she made 39 points with only 3 letters!!! Needless to say, she won again, but one of these days, I will!! :)

It was a long, eventful and fun day! I left for Dodge at 7 am that morning and didn't get home from Grandma's until after 7 that evening! But the great part is that Grandma sent home a jar of pickles with me, which by no great surprise are all gone now! Maybe I should go to Grandma's more often!! :)

Quilt Pattern Published

For the last several months, in and around many other things, I have been working on several patterns I would like to have published. And now I'm happy to say that I have the first one finished.

A Shaggy Raggy Quilt is created with fabrics that ravel easily such as flannel, cotton or denim. It is cut and stitched in a simple and easy way for kids to sew or adults or are new to quilting. I've taught this class many times and have had requests for the pattern in written form, so here it is!!

Finally...after lots of research, writing, editing, rewriting and designing graphics/photos, it is finally complete and ready to go! I received the artwork cover sheets a couple weeks ago and am happy with the finished results.

I created the patterns and cover sheet with Adobe Indesign and Macromedia Fireworks, which are absolutely some of the greatest software programs out there. I could sit for hours and just play with these programs on my computer. I just wish I had the time to do that like I did years ago. That was my main source of computer knowledge - being on the computer for hours playing with files and programs!

New video feature available in blogger

Whoo-hoo!!! I was so excited this morning when I logged into my blogger account and started a post for my embroidery blog!!! I moved my mouse up to the Add Image icon and joyfully discovered that the Add Video option is now available!!!

Several months ago, I saw that Google was working on the Add Video feature on Blogger in Draft (www.draft.blogger.com). Blogger in Draft is Blogger's site where they are working out the kinks for new features they plan to publish to Blogger for everyone to use.

The great thing is that I can now upload video directly to my posts within my blogger screen and don't have to use a third party site like Google Video or YouTube. I can add video clips just like photo files, which sometimes are a hassle to upload, but it will still be much faster than using a third party site.

BTW, did you know that you can log into your blog in draft mode and use the new features Blogger is working on before they are published? Go to www.draft.blogger.com and log in with your username and password and all features in draft stage are available for your use. Keep in mind though, that not all the bugs have been worked out, so they may be glitches. But it is neat to keep on top of the latest happenings in the Blogger world!

Now I just have to find a video to upload to see if it works as great as I think it will...I really have to get back to my sewing since I have a couple things due tomorrow, so I guess the video feature will have to wait a little bit! :)

It won't take long...

FedEx was just here this morning and I added another box to Krissa's bed! It won't take long for me to fill her room up! But after all, if I use it, her room won't be musty-smelling when she gets home! :) It's not as bad as last year, yet!

Sisters Night Out!

We decided we needed to do something together as sisters before Krissa went back to school since we haven't done anything together this summer except go to two weeks of camp. So we decided to go to Dodge Tuesday evening out to eat and do some shopping!

Dad teased us about fixing him a sandwich for supper and us girls going out to eat! But he did have coconut cream pie in the fridge that I just baked that morning!

Oh, but we had a fun time! We laughed and just enjoyed being together all evening! I think the waitress and the people sitting in the booth next to us thought we were a little crazy, but oh well, we still had fun laughing and giggling.

Then we rented Phantom of the Opera to bring home and watch. Needless to say it was after 1am before we went to bed.

Here are some photos and there are more fun shots in my online photo album!

We took Krissa's car

Acting silly!
Krissa & Jena

Just plain fun!
Krissa & I

Me!

Trying on hats at Stage!

Hats are just not my favorite!

Skittles watched the movie with us!

Krissa is on her way to SC

Krissa has been packing and getting everything ready to leave to go back to school the last few days. Yesterday she left late afternoon to go to Salina. She stayed the night with Megan and then they left early this morning for the long drive to South Carolina. They are planning to travel most of the distance today and stop at a hotel for the night. Then they plan to arrive in Greenville early afternoon on Friday.

It's a long drive, but at least she isn't driving by herself. She has someone to talk to and help keep her awake. I'm sure her car is completely full by the time Megan added her stuff to it! But at least they can take more driving than if they were flying.

It will be a little quieter around our house than it has been this summer with Krissa home. We'll miss not having her around and her phone ringing constantly!! But there are some advantages - less food to fix for meals, less laundry to do every week and I get to use her room to store my stuff! Yes, the bed is already full of things and it won't take long for me to move several boxes of inventory in there! :)

God knows!

God knows the rhythm of my spirit

and knows my heart thoughts.

He is as close as breathing.

Author unknown

What a comforting thought!

Yes, he took a bath...

When I went upstairs this morning the first thing I smelled was skunk! And it was coming from the large, dark haired cat sitting on the kitchen floor. Rascal ran into a skunk sometime last night and smelled horrible!

I ran some water in the bathtub and stuck him in it. The smell was so bad, I had to clip on nose plugs as I literally soaked his fur with soap, trying to get the skunk smell out. He wasn't very pleased with the bath, but at least he didn't really fight me, he just stands in the water and meows.

Poor Skittles couldn't figure out why he was screaming and what I was doing to her best buddy. She was right there with her paws on the tub, looking in at Rascal as I was pouring water over him. After I dried him off a little, she just followed him around. He does look quite different wet compared to dry.

I stuck him outside and sprayed air freshener throughout the house. Maybe the skunk smell won't hang around too long.

Pickles and more pickles

The other day Jena canned 11 jars of pickles using Grandma's recipe. Jena had received two huge boxes of cucumbers from someone at work and decided to try canning them.

They were in the garage 24 hours and last night I brought a couple jars in to stick in the refridgerator. I was anticipating yummy pickles this morning. Perhaps not a typical breakfast, but the right kind of pickles are good at any time during the day. :)

The jar was open, so I knew Jena had eaten some this morning before going to work at 6am. They maybe weren't quite like Grandma's, but pretty close! She used a different variety of cucumbers than Grandma did, so that may be the little bit of difference in flavor.

11 jars should last us several weeks, unless Krissa decides to get her fill of pickles in before she goes back to school on Thursday. They don't have pickles at BJU, so she eats plenty when she comes home.

Pickles at our house don't last long!

Pickles are an absolute necessity at our house! When all three of us girls are home, we can go through a complete jar of pickles. And this jar is not a small one or just a 1 quart jar, nope, it is a jar standing over 1 foot tall containing almost 3 quarts of pickles! A couple years ago we starting buying those huge jars of Vlasic pickles.

But there is no comparison between Vlasic pickles and Grandma's pickles. They are not like the pickles Aunt Bee canned in The Pickle Story when Andy, Barney, and Opie couldn't stand eating her kerosene cucumbers. It is just the opposite - Grandma's pickles are so much better than those store-bought ones!

A couple weeks ago, we were at her house after she had canned some fresh pickles and they were delicious!! Jena went to Grandma's Saturday and helped her can 13 jars. Grandma said that would probably be all she would need to make for the year.

And we are thinking that 13 jars might last us 2 weeks, especially since they are Grandma's pickles - much better than ones from the store! Jena brought 2 large jars home with her Saturday and as of yesterday, they are all gone! Grandma said she would can some for us, but I'm not sure she realizes how many jars of pickles we eat a week! :)

Jena brought home Grandma's recipe and we are going to attempt canning some pickles. Hopefully we can get them to taste like Grandma's and not like Aunt Bee's. :)

Another quiet, but busy day

Today the house will be rather quiet. Jena and Krissa are both working and won't be home until this evening sometime. And Dad is outside working on something. So it is just me in the house today. Which is ok; I can gets lots of stuff done, hopefully!

I have laundry started and going upstairs. Lunch is planned and sitting out to thaw. My embroidery machine is busily stitching behind me on some quilt designs. Skittles is running back and forth playing with thread and fabric scattered on the floor. I have my orders shipped out, email answered and morning blogging finished (once I finish this post)!

Next on my to-do list is typing my embroidery newsletter for the week and cutting out several tops and pants for a customer I'm sewing for. Between keeping my machine stitching (Yes, it stitches on its own; all I have to do is change thread color and hit the start button again!) and keeping up with several loads of laundry, I hope to get patterns figured and cut out for the several tops and pants I have to have ready to fit by Thursday. That's my goal for today!

The brick house with the beautiful purple flowers in front...

Last week Dad had given directions to our house to someone who was interested in renting our rental house. The phone rang about 20 minutes later and I picked it up. It was the same lady wondering if she was at the right house. She asked if it was a brick house with the beautiful purple flowers in front of the house.

I had to smile and just say yes. Mom would have been so pleased with the nice compliment on her flowers! And Jena and Dad have done a great job keeping them watered and looking so nice! Purple must be the color this year, because the climbing flowers were also purple.

A year ago...

After church yesterday, Jena, Krissa and I were talking about things that have happened over the last few years. Jena started a memories note on facebook and that's what got the whole thing started. So we were thinking back to the crazy/funny things we did when we were younger.

But that also got us to thinking about what we were doing a year ago. At that time, August 1, 2006, Mom had been diagnosed with MS. By the 13th, she had gone through 10 days of IV medications. Although she was showing just a few symptoms of right sided weakness in her right hand, arm and leg at the first of August, it became increasingly worse as the month wore on. She tired easily and was getting to the point where it was hard for her to do the daily things around the house she did.

Our thoughts and actions were geared toward treating the MS. We were reading about it, talking to people who had it and deciding what medications would the best for treating it. At that time, we had no idea that she had a brain tumor. Little did we know that the next few months would bring brain biopsy surgery, many Drs. visits, long hospital stays, chemo and eventually her passing away in November.

I remember moving my machine and quilt upstairs to work. I had a deadline to finish a quilt by the end of August for a quilt show. But I needed to be upstairs helping Mom with things, so I just packed up and moved for a few weeks. Somehow between things happening with Mom, I was able to get my Doves of Inspiration quilt started and finished in the month of August last year. I looked back to my blog entries last August and it's true. I look back now and wonder how I was able to get that all done!

I just really do love electronic gadgets!

A couple weeks ago I was at Wal-Mart looking in the electronic dept. for an audio speaker cable to run from my computer to my projector. I didn't think they would have one, but I was there so I thought I'd check. Knowing my love of electronics, I shouldn't have even entered that dept., but I did. :)

I was right; no audio cable, but I did find something else. I should know better than to browse up and down the aisles in any electronic section or computer store. More often than not, I find some new gadget or gizmo to add to my never ending collection of computer, software, cell phone and elecrtronic equipment!

And of course, I did! But this is a really neat tool and it will be very useful when I'm traveling. I have seen and have several computer cables with a retractable card like this travel usb cable, but I had not seen until now the ones with multiple kinds of usb connectors that can be interchanged. How clever!!

Not only does the retractable cord save a ton of hassle messing with cords when traveling, but with the interchangeable connections, I don't have to have a separate cord for my video camera, printer, external hard drive and so forth. I needed that at camp a couple weeks ago when I had cords running out of my computer everywhere trying to get my printer, camera, video camera, external hard drive, cell phone and who knows what else connected.

The only thing is that if I need several things plugged in at the same time, I still need an additional cord; this device will only control one at a time. But it will still save some cord tangling when I take my computer places. Anymore, many of the external equipment I have is wireless, which is so handy; I love it! But it almost always has a receiver that runs from a usb port.

I didn't buy the one I have at Wal-Mart, though. I came home and found one on eBay for a much lower cost, plus I also found the audio cable that landed me in the electronics dept. in the first place!

She's not so little anymore...

Skittles has been growing like crazy. That little ball of fur with a puggy tummy that Jena brought home in May is now a thin, long legged cat with an unendless amount of energy.

She still sticks close to me and follows me around, whether I'm upstairs working or downstairs sewing. But she is so playful and hyper! She bounces around the house all day! And I think she learned a few bad habits being by herself in the house all day while we were gone for camp for 2 weeks. :)

Skittles still likes sleeping on my lap, although she's bigger than before and it's harder for me to work around her while she's sleeping.

May 2007

August 2007

May 2007

August 2007

Keep your eyes on the mark!

I've been busy the past few days stitching decorative stitches on a new quilt I am working on. You can see some pictures here, but something struck me as being so very true as I was stitching.

To keep my line of decorative stitches straight, I have to keep my eye constantly on the fabric. My eyes are focused on the red guide line on the presser foot, making sure the line is following the seam line on the fabric. If I take my eye off the red guide line, whether to glance at my thread or perhaps to look at the stitches my machine is creating, the straight line of my stitches will have a slight curve. In less than a second, the moment my eye gets distracted from that red line, I have an undesirable stitch.

As I was stitching, the thought crossed my mind that it is the same way in the Christian life. I have to keep my focus on Christ and not let other things in this world distract me and pull my eyes away from Him. The moment I let other things become my focus, whether it's computer work I need to do, the latest quilting project I am working on or just my never-ending-to-do list, is about the time I feel like I'm falling apart and can't accomplish everything on my own. My eyes have left the mark, what my focus should be on - Jesus Christ.

When I'm stitching, I have to ignore the other things going on. The thread feeding through the machine, the fabric I'm holding in my hands and the stitches the machine is making. With all the other things going on, it is so easy to take my eye off my red guide line and take a peek at my thread or stitches.

The same is true of the Christian life. I have to put aside the things of this world that distract me from my daily quiet time, memorizing Scripture or other ministry. It is so easy to let things crowd in and then I don't have time for the things that God desires me to do.

If I keep my eye on the red guide line, never drifting away, my row of stitches is nice, even and straight - just perfect! But when I glance away, a little curve or detour appears that ruins the row of beautiful stitches.

When I keep my eyes focused on Christ and what He wants me to do, things fall into place, my day goes smoothly. But when I let other things crowd in and don't spend time with Him, it seems like I can't get everything done and the day just falls apart. I have to continually keep my eyes on the mark - Jesus Christ!

Online Assistance??

It seems like anything and everything you purchase has a website listed for more tips, information and help, even plain, simple binders. Do you really need "online assistance" to use a notebook binder? I can understand with electronic equipment and other such things, but a notebook binder?

On the binder I just bought, it listed on their advertising sheet Online Assistance. When I looked at the website they had listed, there were free templates that could be downloaded to use for printing the cover sheet and tabs. Too bad I discovered that after I had typed and printed all my sheets to stick in the binder. Maybe I should have looked at the online assistance offered first.... :)

Just a few notes

It's been rather busy around our house the past couple of weeks. The renters in our big house 1/2 mile from us moved out while we were at camp. So last week we started cleaning the house, getting it ready to rent. It definitely needed some cleaning - the windows, the bathrooms, the kitchen. Plus Dad had to fix the ceiling in the bathroom where the roof had been leaking. And then the normal repairs from someone just living there. But I think we are all finished and it is ready to rent. No renters yet, but I'm sure we'll find some.

Krissa caught a cold over the weekend and is still battling it. Plus she has been working a lot more hours this week at the day care in Dodge. She's grateful for the additional hours, but is tired working the hours she is with her cold. In only about 3 weeks she will be going back to school; can't believe it!

Krissa and Dad have been car shopping several times this summer and finally found a car for her to take back to school. Although it is not exactly my kind of car, she likes it and it fits her oh-so-well! The bright color, style and everything! :)