Use your imagination not to scare yourself to death but to inspire yourself to life. –Adele Brookman
I suppose it is just as well that I haven't blogged in several months because the cobwebs on the decor seem to fit nicely with the theme of the day.
I'd really like to dust off the old blog and get back to regular posting. It's been one wild and crazy adventure at Bug Cottage lately, and totally in a good way. I increased my work hours over the summer to close to full-time, which is counter-intuitive since the Not-So-Little Bugs are home more during the summer, but things all worked out. When school started, I took on some new responsibilities at work and so bumping up to full-time followed.
As time has gone by, I've been keeping a mental list of all the things that I want to blog about, but the list keeps increasing and it seems so daunting a task that I haven't had the nerve to start. I've done lots of fun sewing though, and I'm hoping to get in a few posts about that soon. In case you were curious, I did finish the Signature Quilt for the woman who turned 100 in September. The party was 11 days before her birthday so it was close, but I got it done in time.
As you can imagine, I've been spending a little more time than I used to at work. They are a really wild and crazy bunch. One of the programmers pulled the best prank ever today.
Halloween is my favorite. Dressing up is so much fun. There was a costume contest today {winners to be announced Monday} and my office mate and I decided that we were going to be Minions. We were nicknamed the AdMinions {Admin + Minions}. It was a great collaboration and I think we pulled it together nicely.
Would you like to swing on a star?
Carry moonbeams home in a jar
And be better off than you are
Or would you rather be a . . .
–Swinging On A Star
Music by Jimmy Van Heusen, lyrics by Johnny Burke
One of the girls I work with is expecting a baby boy in a couple of weeks here. I was invited to her shower with a pretty good amount of lead time, so I decided to make a quilt. I had a panel that I bought about 4 years ago out of an all-you-can-stuff-in-a-bag-for-$5 bin. A tiny bit of the outside border had been nicked in the cutting process and I figured it would be a good quilt to practice free-motion on, and then maybe donate. I didn't have enough time to get a quilt pieced for the shower, so I used the panel plus fabric from my stash to make her a quilt.
As I mentioned, I bought the panel to practice FMQ. I outlined all the little bears in the center, plus the lines in the main borders of the design, which was good free-motion practice at following a line. But I specifically had stars and loops in mind for practice. And practice them I did. I did the blue borders on the left and right of the panel first and thought, "huh. Those didn't come out too badly." Then I did the green border with the stars on it in the panel and those loops and stars were decidedly better. Then I filled in the center of the panel {which may have been overkill, but it's done now} and when I got to the outer border, which is flannel I ordered on-line by mistake because it was on clearance but works perfectly in this quilt, I'd pretty much figured out how to keep the loops looking like loops. I'm still really slow, though, because when I come to a star, I have to think about where I want to end up and then go in the opposite direction.
In my blog travels I've seen a number of people who, when they finish a project, list out how many yards of fabric came out of their stash {and if they added any back in to stash}. I always find it interesting. Everything on this quilt came out of my stash {I love it when I actually have what will work!} except for the satin blanket binding. Here's my run-down:
½ yard green flannel for the borders
¼ yard light blue for side borders
¾ yard panel
1¾ yards flannel {used in place of batting; fused to Ultra-Cuddle for backing with Mistyfuse for added stability}
1¾ yards Ultra-Cuddle
Total out-of-stash: 5 yards
And because I've had this earworm for about the last four weeks {the first two lines are printed on the panel — in different fonts for each line, I might add}, I'm going to share with you. Bing Crosby's voice is pretty dreamy, if that helps.
So, you see it's all up to you
You can be better than you are
You could be swingin' on a star
After finishing the Honey Bees II apron, I decided I'd better put together an apron I had all cut out and waiting to make for a former co-worker's wedding a couple of years ago. Her husband still works where I do, but he's moving to a new job soon, at a different company. While I still had the serger out, I put together this apron.
She got a yellow KitchenAid stand mixer and those are her kitchen colors {or at least they were when she got married. Does anyone stick with the kitchen colors they picked before they actually set up house?}. I'm not sure why I never got it finished. Ok, well I do. I'm always distracted by something new and shiny and I'd already made about a hundred of these aprons by the time I cut hers out. So it sat until I got my apron making mojo back. I'm not saying that I'm ready to make another hundred aprons. But it was fun to make a couple more.
You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life. –Albert Camus
Flashback #1: Monday, November 11th, around 4:00 pm. I'm grocery shopping at the local Wal-Marts and Christmas music is playing. This does not put me in a relaxed and happy mood. Nor does it inspire me to spend a little more on the ones I love. It nearly induces a panic attack in the dairy aisle because I have no idea what to get for anyone on my Christmas list and time is running short for inspiration to hit. It also kind of makes me want to cut my ears off and send them and a note that says, "happy ho, ho, ho to you!" to whatever corporate genius thought it would be good idea to start selling Christmas the day after Halloween. I then come to my senses and finish my grocery shopping in a very Grinch-like manner.
Present day:
Tonight was my work Christmas party. I started work at this company 3 years ago, just a few days before the Christmas party. This is the fourth Christmas party I've attended while working for them. Wait. That's not true. I stayed home last year with a migraine. {Sidebar: I had a migraine this year too, but I went anyway.} This was, by far, the best party we've had. We enjoyed lots of amazing food at a local favorite restaurant. Everyone got a small gift {a 16GB USB drive} and then they raffled off some really fun stuff, including $10 lunches on the company, movie pass/restaurant gift card combos, Redbox movie night packages, and a {slightly used} 32" flat-screen TV wired for internet and with a built-in USB port. As awesome as all of those things were, the prize up for grabs when my name was called was eight hours of vacation time. It was exactly what I wanted.
Flashback #2: Tuesday, November 26th, around 6:00 pm. I've just finished grocery shopping and have a supply of cold cereal and milk to keep us out of the stores well beyond Black Friday and the mayhem that follows. With the prospects of a nice four-day weekend ahead, the lights on the trees and the decorations on the street posts that the City put up actually make me feel a little cheery and anticipatory of the Christmas season.
Present Day, a few minutes later:
I'm feeling quite festive tonight. I'm really looking forward to our family parties. I love the food and the conversation and the time together. But I still don't really have a clue about what to get my loved ones for Christmas. I'm riding coattails wherever I can. When someone says, "hey, let's go in on this fantastic item for Beloved Family Member X," I say, "You bet. You can count me in." But as far as getting really great brainwaves of my own, well, I'm not.
I don't consider this attitude to be particularly Scroogish. Let me explain why. At our house we already have plenty of stuff. I'm actually more interested in sorting through and paring down the stuff we already have than I am in going out and hunting for the perfect new stuff to give the Not-So-Little Bugs, which I will then have to try to find places to put. Instead of the commercial collecting of stuff, this year I want to focus on the creating of memories. Did I mention I got eight hours of vacation time at the party tonight?
Flashback #3: Sometime in December in perhaps 1983 or 1984. Maybe it was 1985. I'm not 100% positive. Growing up, we did not have a lot of money. My parents worked hard to make sure that we had what we needed. They stayed out of debt and made a dollar stretch as far as it would go. This particular year, there was a family in our ward {congregation} whose budget was stretched even thinner than my parents'. And so my mom asked us what we would think if she took one of our gifts back and used the money to buy something for this family. We thought it was a great idea. My mom did the shopping and wrapping. On Christmas Eve we crept quietly to their doorstep where we gently placed the packages, rang the doorbell and then ran for the hills.
I do not remember what we gave them. Perhaps pajamas and a toy for each of the kids? I do not remember what I got for Christmas that year, nor do I remember feeling at all deprived because I had one less gift than was originally planned. But I do remember how good it felt to give something to someone who needed it.
Present Day, a little bit after that:
I think perhaps my gift-giving mental block this year stems from the fact that I already have everything I need. I can not think of a single material thing that I need. Mr. Bug and I are happy. We care about each other. We help each other. We have rough spots now and then, but we're on the same team. We have two beautiful children. We have a roof over our heads, clothes to wear and enough to eat. I have enough Ph.D's to keep me stitching for years. I really couldn't ask for much more.
What I want is to make memories with the residents of Bug Cottage. Those eight vacation hours are going to come in handy. I have them earmarked for something special.
My mom continues to help others in need each Christmas season. I don't think there has been a year that has gone by without her donating to Sub-for-Santa or picking a name off the Angel Tree. And I think that maybe a little of that giving spirit is what is missing from my Christmas this year. I've decided that part of my quest for family memories will include some time spent volunteering at the food bank {barring any unforseen age restrictions} this holiday season.
There is still shopping and sewing and crafting to be done. Christmas coming ever closer. Just thinking about everything that needs to happen in such a short amount of time in order to pull it all off this year makes me hyperventilate a little. But I've decided that I'm going let the idea of a "Perfect Christmas" go. I'm going to get done what I can and not worry about the rest. Christmas will come whether or not I send out a hundred Christmas cards and give homemade ornaments to all the neighbors.
At this point, I have two options. I can ride the crazy train for the next two weeks and arrive stressed and stretched so thin that I don't even enjoy it. Or I can see where the Polar Express takes me.
I have a feeling that the second option will be a little more magical.
The calm and balanced mind is the strong and great mind; the hurried and agitated mind is the weak one. –Wallace D. Wattles
Yesterday was the first day back to school for the Not-So-Little Bugs. I wrote this post all day in my head yesterday, but there just wasn't a minute to squeeze in actually typing it out. The moment has almost passed and this post is almost irrelevant, but I wanted to capture at least a little of what I was thinking of yesterday, because I'm still thinking some of it today.
This is Grasshopper. Yesterday was his first day of 8th grade. I remember being in 8th grade. I can hardly believe I have an 8th grader.
This is LadyBug. Yesterday was her first day of 6th grade. I can remember being in 6th grade too.
And this is me on my first day of being the mother of a 6th grader and an 8th grader. {Sidebar: I didn't decide we were taking milestone photos until after Mr. Bug had left for work yesterday and he didn't get/ignored my text requesting that he snap a selfie and e-mail it to me.}
I never was one to get teary when my kids went to school. In years past I may not have been excited about it, but the reason for that is that we had to get back on a regular schedule with early mornings, strict bedtimes and homework. Leading up to the start of school this year, I was ambivalent. Staying on top of homework was at the top of my list of anxieties. In the perks column, with school back in I get to sleep in between thirty minutes and an hour every morning and I'm so over a 9:00 pm bedtime. {Sidebar: I considered keeping an earlier schedule in order to have a little sewing time in the morning, but I know myself and I would never be content with the amount of time available and would be grumpy to have to put away my project to go to work. Work first, then play seems to work best for me.}. And now that school has started and I've had two guilt-free work-days in a row now where I haven't had to worry about the Not-So-Little Bugs being alone, trying to mediate disputes or meet needs over the phone, and making it home well before they get out of school so that I can have a bit of time to decompress after work has been a huge relief. And that trumps tricky homework schedules any day.
If there hadn't been a need for it, I don't think I would have ever chosen to go back to work when my kids were this young. It has been hard, but it has also been good. My hours at work kind of grew to more than I expected, though, which was very stressful where the balancing act is concerned. At the beginning of the summer I asked to reduce my hours back to what I'd been hired for. I hoped that I could keep them steady at that level even after summer, and it looks like it is going to work out on both ends. A coworker who is a single mom needs more hours in order to qualify for health benefits so she has been picking up the slack for me. And the reduction in wages that accompanies fewer work hours hasn't pinched our budget too much. Finding the right balance has been hard for me over the last several years. At the risk of jinxing myself, I think I've maybe got it. At any rate, I'm glad the kids are back in school.
Speaking of which, they should be home any minute now and I want to hear all about their days.
Doldrums: \ˈdōl-drəmz\ Noun
1. a spell of listlessness or despondency
2. a part of the ocean near the equator abounding in calms, squalls, and light shifting winds
3. a state or period of inactivity, stagnation, or slump
Once upon a time, about 2½ weeks ago, I kind of fell into a funk. About six weeks ago, I made a major adjustment to my schedule so that I could be around more for the Not-So-Little Bugs during summer. Overall, it has been a really positive change. I like being the first one in at work. I get a lot more done while it's quiet. And I also get to go home before everybody else; before lunch even. I think, too, that going to bed earlier {it's usually still a little bit light out} and getting more sleep has had a positive effect on how many migraines I get and how long they last {i.e., I'm having fewer and they don't hang on for days}.
I'm trying to keep this as non-whiney as possible, but what this little back-story is leading up to is that somewhere in there, I kind of lost my "me" time. And maybe a little bit of me, too. I know that making sacrifices for your kids is part of being a parent. But I kind of felt like there was a whole lot of resistance in the ranks to where I wanted to go {which, in the literal sense, was anywhere but sitting around at home staring at the screens all day}, getting up early to go to work, going to bed early so I could get up early to go to work, and trying to out-stubborn {in a happy, positive, encouraging kind of way} the reticent {or alternately defiant} Not-So-Little Bugs all combined to make me feel like I was kind of failing a little bit at life. Subsequently, not even sewing sounded fun. So for a few days, I didn't.
Going without sewing for a few days is no big deal. Sometimes you just need a little break. Going a whole week without sewing was kind of a red flag for me. I decided that I'd better get back to the machine and I started to write this post. Well, sort of. I had a clever post title {I ♥ puns}. A few more days went by and still no sewing. At around the 11th no-sew day, it became a bit of a game and I decided to see if I could go a full two weeks without sewing. I think that was the turning point and by day 13, I was itching to do something creative. It was the 4th of July and it is kind of my tradition to work on my Patriotic Sampler for a few days every year around this time. {I know. It would make more sense to start working on it in April so it would be finished and ready to display on the 4th.}
I've been working on this sampler for about twelve years now. I started it when I was pregnant with LadyBug. She's eleven. It is my second oldest Ph.D, and I don't know why I don't just finish it already . I'm so close. Anyway, I decided I'd work on some of the itty, bitty paper pieced stars that go at the corners of the blocks in the sashing. It was then that I found out that my post title was more true than I knew. After the first star {which took an hour because I fussed and fiddled and unpicked a lot to try and get the stripes to line up} I was ready to quit. My sewing muscles {the mental ones that help you push through a boring/difficult/unpleasant part of a project} were seriously out of shape. I persisted, even though I didn't really want to. The non-stripey ones only took thirty minutes each. Seven down. Only twenty more to go.
Cute, no? They finish at 1". Who designed this quilt anyway?
Oh. Right. It was me.
After I'd had my fill of that, I put together one of two remaining blocks for the quilt top. It has been cut out and ready to go for, oh, I don't know. Four years now? This one is called Land of Liberty as was designed by Marcia Hohn at The Quilter's Cache. I kind of love it. Pinwheels and flying geese in the same block? It doesn't get better than that.
For the final block, I had three contenders, only two of which I can remember at the moment, so I won't even bother to tell you about the losers. I showed them to Mr. Bug and he said, hands down, this should be the final block. It is called Spiderweb Star, and it is pretty awesome. {Note: if you make this block, reverse the cutting directions for template piece C/CR.}
I also fiddled around at the old doodle pad {Microsoft Picture Manager & Microsoft Paint} and changed my sashing from tan {the same tan used for most of the block backgrounds. Yeah, not sure what I was thinking there.} to white, moved the blocks around a bit and added the flying geese border. It's kinda wild and crazy. I think it will be a little more mellow with a scrappy collection of reds and blues in the flying geese section. I'm debating about whether or not to add a border between the sashing and the geese and another on the outside of the geese. What do you think?
Block Credits: Row 1 - left to right The Old Red and Blue by Marcia Hohn at The Quilter's Cache Zig-Zag Flag inspired by Karen at The Recipe Bunny Our Eagle pattern from a BOM my mom did at her LQS
Row 2 - left & right Glory Flag pattern from a BOM my mom did at her LQS Crossroads traditional block
Center Section - left to right, top to bottom Uncle Sam pattern from a BOM my mom did at her LQS Patriot's Star{modified} at eQuiltPatterns.com Banner Flag by Elizabeth US Ribbon at Compuquilt Pledge of Allegiance Embroidery by Elizabeth
Row 3 - left & right July Fourth traditional block 54-40 or Fight{modified} or Star Shield traditional block
Once Mother said, "My little pet
You ought to learn your alphabet."
So in my soup I used to get,
All the letters of the alphabet.
I learned them all from A to Z,
And now my Mother's giving me
Animal crackers in my soup.
Monkeys and rabbits loop the loop.
Gosh oh gee but I have fun
Swallowing animals one by one.
–Irving Caesar and Ted Koehler
I work in the accounting department at a small software company. Actually, I'm pretty much the accounting department at a small software company. On the first of every month, rain, shine, Saturday or holiday, I am given a spreadsheet containing upwards of 5000 names which I have to sort through to determine which users are billable and which are not. I filter and sort and number and it takes about 8 or 9 hours. It is tedious and a little mind numbing. After the spreadsheet is ready, I print it out and then transfer the information, company by company, to our very out-dated old school accounting software so that I can print and send out invoices. Of course, I don't start from scratch every month. I carry the information over from the previous month, but if a company adds or drops a user, then I have to add or remove said user from their invoice, manually re-ordering and numbering the users. Even if there are no obvious changes, I still have to compare what's in the accounting software to the spreadsheet because sometimes, rather than dropping a user and adding a new one, they will just change the user name. I usually end up going over most of the list twice as I check and print. This takes at least another four days with the help of the Executive Assistant, who helps me print and also checks the printed invoices against the spreadsheet for typos or errors in pricing.
And it happens every month. All of those names start swirling around in my brain like alphabet soup.
*There are the normal, everyday names like John Smith and Mary Brown. Then there are the attempts to dress up every day names, like Adamantium Williams and Steele Jones. There are names that appear to be back to front, like Harrison Bert and Taylor Grace. {Sidebar: I've actually wondered if they entered their names backwards when setting up their accounts, but then they call and their first name really does sound like a last name and vice-versa}. There are names that don't go together, like Jose O'Malley. There are names that remind me of characters in books, Henry Potter, and movies, Clark Kenton, names that remind me of actors, Merlyn Streep, names that remind me of political figures, Rudolfus Hillter, and names that remind me of pop culture icons, Bella-Bev Devoe. And because we have customers all over the world, there are names that look completely foreign to me.
Now, I don't take issue with the names, per se. It is a parent's prerogavtive to name their child any fool thing they want {see also, Nymphadora Tonks}. It is simply the sheer number of names and the intensity and duration that I must deal with them that makes me a little crackers sometimes.
*All names are completely fictional, and any resemblance to names of actual people is purely coincidental.
The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. –Unknown
According to Phineas and Ferb, there are 104 days of summer vacation. The Not-So-Little Bugs say it is more like 77½. Whatever the case, the annual problem is finding a good way to spend those days. We're only mid-way through our first week and I'm running out of ideas.
One of my goals before turning 40 was to learn to love mornings. Mornings have been my arch nemesis for many years. On-again off-again insomnia, pregnancy and having newborns and naughty energetic toddlers who wouldn't stay in bed interrupted my sleep patterns and I never had a pressing need to adjust them back. I grew to love the quiet time at night. I felt my best in the evenings and liked to create at that time of day. But I realized that it might be beneficial to make friends, once again, with the early hours of the day. I made a little progress; if not friends, mornings and I are at least allies. Logically, I know that getting up earlier and getting a jump on the day is less frustrating for me. Physically, by about 9:30 pm my eyelids are drooping and I no longer want to stay up until 1:00 am sewing. But mentally, I miss that quiet time after everyone's gone to bed. And I never spring out of bed bright eyed and bushy tailed when my alarm goes off. As a matter of fact, when my alarm goes off I wonder why it is going off so early. I can't ever think of a reason for it and sometimes sleep until my back-up alarm goes off. It is only once I get up and get moving that I remember why I needed to get up so early. I'm not a very clear thinker while I'm half alseep.
It was with great trepidation, then, that I decided that I would push my alarm time back a full hour so that I could get to work and back before the day has barely begun. There were many factors that went into this decision, but being home for the greater part of the day to help the Not-So-Little Bugs fill their summer vacation weighed in the heaviest. They have lists of chores and suggested activities they have to do, but I just feel like a kid needs his/her mom around during those long, lazy days of summer, to at least try to keep the chaos from getting too out of hand.
Having a day that is heavily weighted during the daylight hours is very interesting. Although I was getting up early enough to shower and get dressed before helping the Not-So-Little Bugs get to school, I also took a little time for myself to read blogs eat a leisurely breakfast, balance my checkbook, or send e-mails, among other things, before I went to work. I've cut all of that out of my routine and I'm out the door with my breakfast in hand before the Not-So-Little Bugs are even awake. When I get home, we have lunch, do our afternoon chores together and by 4:00 in the afternoon I'm wondering what to do with myself.
Getting up at a quarter-to-the-crack-of-dawn is definitely not my favorite thing ever. It requires that I go to bed at 9:00 pm, so that I can toss and turn the requisite 45 minutes before falling asleep. And even with a full eight hours of sleep built into the schedule, I still wonder why in the world my alarm is going off so early. I've discovered something interesting, though. The world is just as quiet in the early morning as it is late at night. The difference for me is momentum. At the end of the day I'm already moving, so it is easier to keep on moving. In the morning, I'm at a dead standstill and it is harder to get that momentum.
Perhaps if I keep plugging away at it, I'll get the hang of mornings. In the meantime, I'm going to see if I can figure out how to get my iPhone to play a few get-up-and-go tunes instead of an alarm in the mornings. And I'll keep looking for things to add to my list of fun {free} things to do during summer vacation. Maybe that will help me get rid of the earworm I've had since last Friday.
Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony. –Thomas Merton
Absentia
I think about blogging a lot. I write posts in my head all the time. But getting them down “on paper” is another matter. This post is a patchwork of the things that have been on my mind the last week or so. I've often wished for a USB port behind my ear, so that I could plug in and download my thoughts. Then I could blog things one at a time. It's been so long, I don't know if anyone is left out there to read this. I hope you all haven't given up on me. There is still a ton of traffic here and I check at least once a day to see if there are new comments. I stopped getting excited a couple of weeks ago, though, because all there is is spam, spam and more spam. I know some of you are also getting spammed into oblivion. Do you think if we asked nicely, that Google/Blogger would put anonymous commenting in its own category to be turned on and off at will and independent of any other commenting options?
A Pocket Dial and Other Telephone Related Chatter
At work yesterday afternoon I answered the phone, but couldn't understand what the person on the other end said in reply to my “how may I help you?” spiel. This isn't uncommon; lots of our customers speak English as a second language, so I took a deep breath and prepared to do my best. However, the unintelligible reply was followed by a long silence, to which I answered “hello?” Then there was a snippet of a conversation, in perfect English, about bone spurs on someone's heels. I tried another “hello?” but it was obvious that I was not included in the conversation.
I'm still scratching my head over it. You have to be a very persistent pocket dialer in order to get to me. First you have to dial the main number, which could be on anyone's speed dial. But then you have to select option 4 or dial my direct extension. And bone spurs, even ones on heels, have absolutely nothing to do with how many people we billed them for last month.
There seems to be a funny phenomenon going on at my desk. Aside from the occasional pocket dial, no one ever calls me at work unless I'm in the bathroom. It's getting so I'm afraid to even go, because I know I'll have voice mail when I get back, which is ten times more work to handle than a straight up phone call. Three times this week, I've come back from a quick potty break to find I had a message. How is that even possible?
My New Best Friend
I'd like to introduce you to Mel. She's my new best friend, which I'm sure she'd be interested to know since we've never met. Mel has a food blog. And not just any food blog. It's a good food blog, which is just what I've been missing in my life.
A couple of months ago, I gave up dairy due to intolerance. Thanks to some great advice from Regan and P., who are both dairy free, I survived my first few weeks of wondering what I actually can eat. {Sidebar: there are milk or milk products in everything, from chocolate to bread to taco seasoning packets. Strangely, there is not milk found in Oreos.} Regan hooked me up with a good dairy-free “butter” and gave me lots of advice on how to live dairy free. P. commiserated over the loss of most chocolate products in our diets. And I muddled through, hunting down every last allergen ingredient list that could be found on the internet for fast-food restaurants. When nothing was available on-line, I called ahead to places I was contemplating eating at and harassed the poor employees into giving me the low-down on what was dairy free. I mourned the loss of pizza and ice cream and my favorite casseroles, which all have cream-of-some-kind-or-other soup in them. And I kind of quit cooking on a regular basis.
Eventually, I found a new-age hippie herb shop that sells lots organic and whole foods, as well as lots of dairy free food items like vegan “cheese” and “sour cream.” I was able to make some of my favorite dishes with the diary free substitutes, but there were still some serious holes in my menu.
Then I met Mel and her fabulous food blog. She has menu plans and a month's worth of meals that take 30 minutes or less. She's not dairy free, but her recipes are fresh, without a lot of processed foods. And she doesn't cook with cream-of-anything soup {at least not that I've seen}. Everythingwe'vetried so far has been delicious. The wraps{with dairy free cheese and sour cream substitutes} we had on Monday were so good, I ate the left-overs for breakfast on Tuesday morning. And the Sweet & Sour Chicken we had for dinner on Wednesday night was also lunch on Thursday and dinner tonight. I've never been so excited to have left-overs. {Sidebar: whoever invented sweet & sour sauce is a genius. Seriously. On the one hand it is so innocently sweet that you want to take it home to meet your mother and on the other, so sour that your eyes roll back a little in your head.}{Sidebar: P., the sweet & sour chicken is gluten-free if you use the right soy sauce. And I'm wondering if you could use honey instead of sugar. This recipe seems to be saying “use honey in me.”} I've pinned about a dozen other things to try from Mel's, and I'm looking forward to it!
I've bookmarked a few otherfoodblogs that look promising, and as soon as I stop drooling over Mel's Kitchen Cafe, I'm going to take a serious look and see what other food adventures I can take.
Quilter's Favorites
You meet the most amazing people in blogland that you might not otherwise ever encounter in real life. Have you met Geta yet? She is a seriously amazing quilter. In a little under two months, she is hosting the Quilter's Favorites linky party.
It looks to be quite the blog event. Anyone and everyone can participate. Geta's put together a list of questions that you can print out and answer as you quilt over the next few weeks. Then during the week of May 10th, you can post your answers, link up and then go learn something new from the other quilters who link up. I'm looking forward to clicking around the blogosphere to see what new project I just have to start.
The Tale of the Tortoise and the Snail or, What I'm Working on For Friday Night Sew-In
I haven't officially participated in Friday Night Sew-In for a year now. But with Mr. Bug on 3rd shift {midnight to 10:00 am}, pretty much every Friday night is Friday Night Sew-In at Bug Cottage. {Sidebar: I am so happy to announce that Mr. Bug is working days again! Do a little happy dance with me!} Even though Mr. Bug is home tonight, I'm doing Friday Night Sew-In, because he's still transitioning from being a nocturnal animal. We'll catch up on our TV and I'm going to see if I can get a little quilting done on Miss Butterfly's Zig-Zag quilt. I was hoping to be a little farther along on it by now.
Since I last posted {11 days ago}, I still had to put the back together before I could baste the quilt. Then I had to make the binding and I decided that I needed to pre-wash and dry the batting {for shrinkage purposes, and not at all because I was procrastinating; see also, persnickety}. After that I was distracted by some chain piecing on a really, really, really old Ph.D quilt that I hope to finish sometime this decade. I was certain that the Zig-Zag quilt need to rest for a little bit, kind of like bread dough. And I knew that basting it was going to be pretty hairy. I was right. It took 2½ hours. I procrastinated that until last weekend and have been working on the straight-line quilting a little bit at a time this week. I had a couple of no-sew days {I must have been really tired or busy to have a day go by without sewing at least a little bit; see also, Mel's Kitchen Cafe}. I have just shy of half of the white zig-zags finished. My goal for FNSI is to finish the rest of those and then wind bobbins for the threads for the FMQ in the colored zig-zags. I will probably bind the quilt before I do the FMQ {the quilt should be pretty stabilized by then and it is just that much less bulk to work with. Plus, it keeps lint from building up on the quilt as it rubs off the extra batting around the edges} , but it is always good to be prepared.
Why, yes. That is a twin size quilt, all 72” x 96” of it, balanced on my little sewing table. When I quilt, I hold as much of it as I can in my lap and then fold or roll the rest of it to fit on the table. This is the biggest quilt I've done, but so far, it is working out nicely.
Extreme Shepherding
Confession time: I started this post in December. I knew that in my next hodge-podge post, I wanted to show you this funny video. So I threw the HTML code in to a draft and have been moving the scheduled post date up by a few weeks every time the draft got old enough to drop down into the list of already posted stuff and get lost. There wasn't anything else in this post until today. And I'm hoping this is still as funny as I remember!
The only rules that really matter are these: what a man can do and what a man can't do. For instance, you can accept that your father was a pirate and a good man or you can't. But pirate is in your blood, boy, so you'll have to square with that some day. And me, for example, I can let you drown, but I can't bring this ship into Tortuga all by me onesies, savvy? So, can you sail under the command of a pirate, or can you not? –Captain Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl
Calling this a wrap-up post isn't quite accurate since you get pretty much everything about Christmas this year in one post. But I love a good pun, so just go with it.
What I Can Do
In the past few weeks I've been thinking a lot about what I can't do. Perhaps there has been some tiny shift in the cosmos that has caused time to speed up, and therefore, I can't get as much done in one day as I used to. Quite possibly, my responsibilities at work have increased and I have 10 to 15 fewer hours each week to work with, depending on the week. Or maybe I just overestimate my abilities. Whatever the case, it seems like there is an awful lot of stuff that I can't do.
I just celebrated my 2-year anniversary at work. Since I started working, I've been struggling with finding the right balance. And I've never actually considered myself as "working." In my head, this has only been a temporary thing. Two years is less temporary than I'd hoped. We have a plan in place, which makes my employment status even more less temporary. But I'd still like to think of it as temporary. What's a couple more years, right?
In the meantime, I'll continue to work on balance. I've been finishing far fewer projects and blogging a lot less than I would like to. And it will probably have to stay that way for a while. LadyBug, Grasshopper and Mr. Bug are my top priority, and that is how it should be. In the mean time, I'm going to focus on what I can do, for and with my family as well as my personal pursuits.
Neighbor Gifts 2012: Felted Wool Ornaments
It is with the "what I can do" mindset that I approached my Christmas crafting this year. I love to give handmade gifts. But there just wasn't time to do something for everyone on my list. So, I focused on what I could do. In our neighborhood, we have a tradition of taking around a little something to each other. Over the years, I've done several different things, but my favorite thing, by far, is to make ornaments. I've been collecting ideas for handmade Christmas ornaments, and have decided that I'm never going to bake and decorate 42 dozen sugar cookies, or mix up 250 servings of minty hot cocoa mix ever again. Granted, making an ornament for each family on my list probably takes the same amount of time, but there are so many fewer dirty dishes that it is worth it.
This year, I didn't get started on my ornament making until the 20th, but I was determined to get it done. My brother got married on the 15th and I was trying to get a quilt done for him {still working on that}, as well as make skirts and blouses for LadyBug and me for the wedding. I also had work and laundry and snow shoveling and life to fit in there. And then there was the matter of finding the right felt for the job. I was inspired by the pretty red felted wool ornaments P. made and who graciously shared her pattern, but was going to make due with some cheap acrylic felt. After further consideration, I decided that felted wool was the only way to go, but wasn't sure if I'd be able to find the right wool item to thrift/get enough thrifted wool to make my ornaments so I bought a yard of winter white wool at JoAnn's {thank you 50% off coupon} and felted it. I'm not 100% sure, but I think I saved money by buying wool yardage and felting it myself vs. buying felted wool at a quilt shop.
This year, I had 55 families on my list. I know. I'm nuts. Once you make my list, the only way to get off is to move and not leave a forwarding address. As I assessed the situation, I realized that I could not get 55 ornaments done and delivered by the 24th. A few cuts had to be made. Since our families have the gift of us, I crossed off members of both mine and Mr. Bug's families, reducing the number of ornaments to be made in 3½ days from 55 to 38. Here are 25 of the 36 I finished before Christmas. 11 had already either been hand delivered or mailed out when I took this and I still have two more to make and send out. Obviously, those are going to arrive after all the decorations have been put away. But it's the thought that counts, right?
Yes, I'm feeling the guilt for cutting our family members from the list. But it was what I could do. I'm starting next year's ornaments tomorrow so I don't have to leave anyone off the list.
Christmas Greetings
Not everyone who gets a Christmas card gets an ornament, but everyone who gets an ornament also gets a card. Again, the only way to get off the list is to move and not leave a forwarding address. Even then, I may still track you down. We send out 108 cards this year. I've tried to cut my list, but it is pointless. I don't want anyone to feel left out. That includes you, so I hope you won't mind a virtual card.
The Great iOS Debate: Escalated
Ever since the iPhone came out {in 2007, I believe}, I've wanted one. The problem is, I think it is absolutely ridiculous to pay $80 a month for service. When the iPad came out, I kind of lost interest in the iPhone, because an iPad seemed much more useful. I discussed this at great length several months ago, when the iPhone became available through Virgin Mobile, but the debate was tabled because we needed a new oven.
After Thanksgiving, the prices of the iPhone 4S dropped and I decided that it was time. To tell you how truly busy things have been around here, I've had this awesome new piece of technology in my possession for 2½ weeks now and haven't blogged a peep about it.
As a matter of fact, I've already dropped it hard enough to break it, if it weren't for the OtterBox I got to go with it. You can see the divot on the bottom corner, there.
Apple iPhone 4S, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. OK. I won't. Because if I did, I'd go on and on and on for more than you all would care to read. I'm guessing that a lot of people have already lost interest in this extremely long post and quit reading two subtitles ago. So in the interest of keeping it interesting, or at least from getting more long winded and boring, I'll cut straight to the chase. I love my iPhone SO MUCH that I now want an iPad also. Or maybe an iPad Mini. Or maybe both. It is that awesome.
Christmas Joy
Christmas at Bug Cottage was pretty good this year. Mr. Bug and I had the shopping done by the 19th and I have enjoyed watching everyone enjoy their presents. As for me, aside from the iPhone, which is part Christmas and part because it was time for a new phone, I think my favorite gift was a Gingher rotary cutter from my Mom. It was unexpected, unnecessary and extravagant. In other words, it was perfect.
I've already put it to use. About 2½ years ago, Shay and I did a fabric exchange. I sent her some random bits of brown and pink fabrics and she sent me a completely awesome layer cake of Sparkle All the Way. Since then, I've been on the look-out for the perfect quilt to put it to use in. I entertained several ideas, but nothing seemed just right. A couple of weeks ago, I was inspired by the Brights Christmas Quilt Amy over at Diary of A Quilter put together. I hopped on over to her Etsy shop to check out the pattern she used, and found an even better fit for the layer cake. I ordered some Remix dots, found a couple of the Sparkle All the Way prints, as well as some prints from a couple other Robert Kaufman Christmas lines, and voilá. I have a complete kit for one fantastic Christmas quilt. For sometime in the future. Don't mock. It's what I can do right now. And it's all cut out for when I finally get around to it.
We Three Kings
I know Christmas was yesterday, but The Piano Guys' awesomeness doesn't have an expiration date.
{Angel's Landing, Zion's National Park Image Source}
I've dropped off cliffs into the crystal blue,
And I've set up tents on golden sand.
But all I need is you, here, falling in my arms
And me, there, subject to your charms
And I don't know if I have ever felt this way before
All I need is you
–All I Need is You, Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband
Thursday, October 4, 2012 8:13 am
It's been a busy week at work, made even busier by the fact that I'm taking tomorrow off. We're going to Zion National Park. I have to say, upfront, that I'm an indoors kind of girl. But I'm really looking forward to this. Because our trip falls at a very busy time at work, I had to push my first-of-the-month tasks back a day earlier in order to make this work. This included working last Saturday, which meant I didn't get my regular Saturday chores done. I only did the essentials. I could have used that time to prepare for the trip this weekend, because there hasn't been a spare minute this week to even think of it. Until last night at midnight that is, when I was lying in bed trying to go to sleep.
Sometimes I come up with some really brilliant stuff while I'm supposed to be sleeping but can't. Other times, it's a little bit of madness. Last night I decided that we should have family pictures taken while we are in Zion's. Mr. Bug's youngest brother and his wife dabble around in photography. We were going to have them do family photos a couple of months ago, but Mr. Bug's work schedule wasn't cooperating and we had to cancel. They're going to be at Zion's. We're going to be at Zion's. There won't be any competing work schedules. Why not?
Well, for starters, I'm not sure what LadyBug and Grasshopper will wear. I have a pretty good idea for Mr. Bug and me, but not the Little Bugs. I'd need to go shopping for them. And it would have to be a miracle shopping trip, indeed, where the perfect outfits are hanging on mannequins just inside the front door of the first store I go into, because today is another long work day; perhaps the longest work day of the week, in order to get everything tied up so that I can be absent tomorrow. Aside from the outfits, LadyBug and Grasshopper both need haircuts and I need a touch-up. I've got quite a bit of silver showing at the roots. I wonder if I could pass it off as hair bling and start a new fashion trend? Perhaps not. In any case, I can do our hair. If there were enough time. But what I really wish was that my sister could come down and do all three of us.
It is probably a little unrealistic to try to squeeze in all the prep this would take. Perhaps it would be better to do it a different weekend, when I have more time to get us pulled together.
Right now, I need to get to work. Sigh. I miss my stay-at-home-mom days.
--
Friday, October 5, 2012 8:31 am
The occasion for our trip to Zion's is Mr. Bug's annual family reunion. I'm always a little anxious to get together with his side of the family. There are some very strong personalities; too many Chieftainesses among the sisters and sisters-in-law trying to lead the tribe {and it's catching on with some of the older grand-daughters} and the men are just content to . . . well, they're just content. Getting a group of 50 {two parents, eight children, eight spouses, and thirty-two grandchildren} to all go in the same direction is pretty much impossible. There have been some squabbles and some hurt feelings. I guess that's what family is, but it takes me a few minutes to relax once we get there. After I've had a few minutes to settle in, I always have a great time and I always feel bad that I did not enthusiastically return the warm greetings we received when we got there. My goal today is to let all my stress go in the car on the way so that I can hit the ground running.
Yesterday was a long and stressful day at work. It was apparent, after I arrived and spent an hour helping someone else with their workload before my own because no one else had the time to train them, that trying to squeeze in the necessary prep for formal family photos was not going to contribute to my overall happiness and that finding another time soon to do them was in the best interest of my mental well-being. I have to go back to work today for a couple of hours. My goal is to get done only the essentials. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that something "urgent" doesn't come up while I'm there because I know I'll have to take care of it. We still have to pack, so I really do need to get in and out quickly.
We really are a fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants operation around here .
We'll pick the Little Bugs up from school and head out. It's a little under four hours, so barring any dawdling {which we are excellent at} we should get there about 7:00 tonight.
--
4:23 pm
We dawdled. We're finally on the road.
--
4:25 pm
False start. We have to stop and get gas.
--
4:32 pm
OK. Now we're on the way. Zion Park ETA: 8:30 pm
--
9:05 pm
We're here and we're settled in. We're staying just outside of Zion's, near Navajo Lake and Brian Head. One of Mr. Bug's brothers found a lodge that we could rent out in its entirety. There are six rooms each with a double or queen bed and private bathroom, and three sets of suites with a varying number of beds and sleeper couches and each with a bathroom. There is also a large common area and a nice kitchen. 49 of the 50 of us are here, which is amazing. The beds have been supplemented with cots and air mattresses. Some of the kids are sleeping on the floor, but I think we're all comfortable enough. It beats camping by a long shot.
Mr. Bug & I, along with his youngest brother and his wife {the aforementioned photographers} are in charge of breakfast for 49 tomorrow. We're doing French Toast Casserole, so it is time to put that together.
--
Saturday, October 6 7:46 am
My head hurts, in that old familiar left-side-only way. Seriously? Can I play the it-is-so-not-fair-that-I-have-a-migraine-today card? I've been looking forward to this trip for a while, and I'd planned to take advantage of the outdoors experience. We're hiking The Narrows today. I don't want my day spoiled. Maybe if I ignore it, it will go away.
--
9:45 am
Breakfast was a big success.
My head still hurts. I'm still ignoring it, but I think hiking The Narrows is out. A smaller group is going on an easier/shorter hike to Cascade Falls, and I'm going to play it safe.
--
11:10 am
I'm really glad we're staying in a lodge. With beds. And flushing toilets. I've never been a big fan of camping. It's not like I just don't like the idea of camping. I've been {at least once every summer between the ages of 12 and 18 and in the winter a couple of times too} and I actually don't like it. My quarrels with camping are several, the first of which is the lack of indoor plumbing, and the second of which is a lack of indoors. I have allergies, so I'm either stuffy or sneezy or runny. But I think the biggest deterrent for me is the location of the required amount of Nature to make a successful camping trip. The roads to get there are bumpy and winding and usually on an incline. I get motion sick. There wasn't much I could do about it on those camping trips as a teen, except for grin and bear the ride up the canyon. Now, it helps when I can drive, but I still usually arrive feeling queasy and uneasy. I think I equate that unpleasant feeling with camping.
Having said that, I can not deny how beautiful it is here. We're trundling down a dirt road that cuts through a large, green meadow ringed by quakies and pine trees. The colors are amazing.
LadyBug just asked when we were going to get the trail head. It seems that life is mostly about the "hurry up and get there." But the answer came to me that today it's not about getting there. Today is about enjoying the ride. That seemed to satisfy both of us.
--
12:00 pm
We made it to the falls. It not so much a waterfall as it is a trickle down an incline of mossy rocks. But the trail was easy and the scenery and view are amazing.
One of the things I love best about Mr. Bug is his sense of humor. A short way in along the trail, there was a lookout with two benches. They were woven like chain-link, but made of a sturdier metal. The end of one of them was seriously bent out of shape towards the ground. Someone wondered if a tree had fallen on it. Mr. Bug was certain that it was a bear. One of his greatest {irrational} fears is that we'll all be eaten by bears. I laughed a lot at the commentary he provided for the bear who bent the bench . . . those humans make such puny furniture. Ah well. I'll sit here anyway.
It might be funnier if you were there.
The lookout from the trail head is to Zion Park. The elevation here is 10,000± ft above sea level.
I cobbled together a panoramic view. It is so beautiful.
--
1:00 pm
We're back from the hike. I can't ignore the headache anymore. I'm checking out for the afternoon.
--
6:00 pm
I'm slightly annoyed that I don't have anything more interesting to talk about than my head. Nothing is helping. I'm going back to ignoring it.
--
9:46 pm
Dinner was excellent. There are several different board and card games going on, lots of great conversation and fun cousin interaction. This is my favorite part of getting together.
--
Sunday, October 7, 2012 9:55 am
When Mr. Bug and I are away from the everyday drone we make an invincible team. Life is somehow easier and we're more in sync. It has been a really relaxing time but now we're packed and ready to go home. I really did not get my fill and we're going to plan something similar soon. Perhaps Yellowstone next. If I can convince Mr. Bug the bears aren't going to eat us.
Everyone is supposed to be on the back porch in 5 minutes for a group photo. It will take at least 30 minutes to get organized.
10:45 am
Four people in attendance missed the photo shoot {and one didn't make it on the trip}, so here are 45 of us. What a handsome group! And three more babies are due between January and May!
11:07 am
We've made our goodbyes and we're headed home now. T-minus 4 hours and counting. Hopefully it will be a quiet, uneventful trip.
1:15 pm
LadyBug is carsick. She timed it nicely with the appearance of a road stop.
3:07 pm
We've been off the twisty, winding roads for two hours now. Maybe she's not carsick. Maybe she has the flu. No rest stop this time. 25 miles 'til home.
6:00 pm
Home again.
The laundry is underway.
We get to sleep in our own beds tonight.
Were it not for music, we might in these days say, the Beautiful is dead. –Benjamin Disraeli
I had so much fun reading the comments from last week about your dream jobs. A fair few of you already have your dream jobs, which is really awesome! Doing something you love definitely makes work a lot less like work. While we're on the subject, it's been a long work week for me {with a lot to go, still}, so I'm going to cut my comments short today. I wanted to write a whole bunch, but I'm just worn out. I'm even too tired to sew tonight and I'm going straight to bed as soon as I post. But there was one job mentioned that kind of tickled my fancy. Anna is a ranger at Yellowstone National Park. How cool is that!?! Even though I'm mostly an indoors type of gal, I would love to take a vacation to Yellowstone. When we were little, my parents took the three oldest kids to Yellowstone {the three youngest weren't born yet} one summer. We stayed in a cabin on the park, which was already occupied by a squirrel. I don't know that anything spectacular happened and I'm sure it was a lot more like camping than a vacation should be, but I have kind of fond memories of that trip. I would love to take my Little Bugs there. I can't persuade Mr. Bug, though. He's convinced that we'll all be eaten by bears.
Today the big question I must ask is . . . what is your favorite music genre? I'm all over the map. There are only a few kinds of music that I don't like. They are the kinds that aren't so much music as they are like noise. Of course, that is a matter of taste, so I'd like to hear what you like. Tell me what your favorite bands and songs are. And if you're so inclined, tell me what is the most embarrassing song on your iPod/mp3 player/playlist or the most embarrassing CD in your collection. In that category, I have most of Celine Dion's CD's, but I totally own that. She has such a beautiful voice. I also have a couple of Brittney Spears songs on my iPod and I even have a little bit of a secret crush on Barry Manalow. After all, he writes the songs that make the whole world sing.
And what would a post about music be without a music spot? I just love those spunky Dixie Chicks, so here's a little something fun to end with.
Accomplishing the impossible means only that the boss will add it to your regular duties. –Doug Larson
I guess I satisfied your curiosity last week with my answers to your questions, because there were only a few more this week. But they were a really great bunch which gave me plenty to talk about. I'll start off with Richard's question: What are your 3 favorite blocks. And what block do you hate (and no, "square ones," is not a fair answer to either)?
My favorite blocks to make are Pinwheels, Stars and Flying Geese, not necessarily in that order. A pinwheel block was the first block{other than squares} I ever pieced and it was love. That pinwheel was the very center of the quilt and it went inside a star block, which uses flying geese units for the points. I'm just guessing here, but perhaps that is why those blocks are at the top of my list. I'm working on a Pinwheel Sampler quilt, which I hope to finish up in the next few weeks. I'm also working very, very slowly on a star quilt, which I hope is going to be awesome if I ever get it done. I've only been working on it here and there for about five years now. As I mentioned, flying geese are most often used in star points, but I also love them on their own and plan to use them in the border of another of my many, many Ph.D quilts. For flying geese units, I really like Patti Anderson's no-waste method of piecing them.
And blocks I don't like to piece? Any block that doesn't come out how it is supposed to .
From my cute sister, Jill, If you could have any animal as a pet, what would you choose?
We have a fire-bellied toad named Pants {sadly, Violet died}. I like keeping toads, aside from the keeping live crickets to feed the toads and having to buy cricket food to keep the crickets alive and keeping the aquarium slime-free.
Someday, I think we'll get a dog. That will be dependent on how long I keep working, though, because keeping a dog locked up all day while we're away just wouldn't be nice.
I think the pet I would absolutely love the best, though, is not really one pet, but more of an eco-system. I would love a salt-water aquarium. A really big one. With lots and lots of colorful fish. And sea horses. I once saw a tank of just sea horses and they were the coolest little creatures ever. This tank would, of course, have a built-in maintenance man to keep the tank clean and balanced and running like it is supposed to.
And finally, Ann Marie asked, If you could have your dream job, what would you be doing? Where we you be living to do it too?
Great question! Thank you so much for asking . I have several dream jobs. Some of them are jobs that would be a dream to do and others are more like jobs that I could only do in my dreams.
In the category of jobs that would be a dream, I would love to work on the gardening/landscaping crew at an amusement park. Specifically, I'm thinking of a local amusement park, which sits smack in the middle of my mom's house and Mr. Bug's job. If we moved to the city where it is located, it would cut 5 hours and 20 minutes of commute time every week for Mr. Bug, bring me a hop, skip and a jump away from my mom AND make working in their gardens a possibility.
As far as other plausible jobs, I'd love to work in a quilt shop, and especially would like to teach classes. Working at quilt shop, however, does not seem like a very good source of income. I know all you fabric-a-holics know what I mean. I think that would have to be a job where I wasn't depending on wages earned.
In the realm of really-cool-but-a-total-longshot would have to be the writer of books that people like to read. You might have noticed that I like to write. I have ideas for a couple of books floating around in my head. The trouble comes in inventing a conflict that is interesting enough to engage the readers without doing something that has already been done. Doing so almost necessitates using supernatural elements in the story, which I'm really hesitant to do. After all, who can top Harry Potter? Still, one day, I might actually try stringing together a few thoughts and see if a plot develops.
If none of those work out, I've got a day job that I like. There are certain things I don't like about where I work, which I won't go into because that can get you fired. The job itself I do like. I work with numbers. They are predictable. Consistent. Dependable. Constant. That I like.
How about you? I must ask . . . what is your dream job? There is a poll in the sidebar with lots of options. Vote. Obviously, I couldn't anticipate everyone's dreams so if you don't find what you're looking for {or even if you do} leave me a comment and tell me how you'd like to spend your working hours.
. I'm so close. Anyway, I decided I'd work on some of the itty, bitty paper pieced stars that go at the corners of the blocks in the sashing. It was then that I found out that my post title was more true than I knew. After the first star 
.
. I have several dream jobs. Some of them are jobs that would be a dream to do and others are more like jobs that I could only do in my dreams.