Various and Sundry Monday: Vol 17

Stressed is desserts spelled backwards. Coincidence? I think not.
–Unknown

Favourite Things Friday: Monday Edition
Last week was such a busy week that by the time Friday came, I was pretty much out of steam and didn't get to my FTF post. I had something really good; a complete no-brainer. So I'm posting it today instead of waiting until next Friday because I'm still pretty excited about it and it is still my favorite thing today. My AURIfil color card came! I've looked at it about a million times. The colors are amazing and thread is incredibly smooth and silky. I love to stroke each little thread sample as I look over the card. I think I'm going to have to start wearing gloves when I handle it so that the oils from my fingers don't discolor the threads

I was really impressed with how fast it came. I ordered it Saturday-before-last, late in the evening and it was here by Thursday, which made it a really fun mail day. I had my colors all picked out before I went to bed. I submitted my order first thing Friday morning. Monogrammed Heirlooms carries all of the 50-weight threads and sells the 1400-yard spools for $8.00, which is a really great price. If you order 4 or more spools, you get 10% off your order and if you order 10 or more spools you get 20% off {and I am totally not getting paid to advertise for them }. I'm hoping that they will be as fast at shipping the thread as they did the color card, because that means it will be here by Wednesday!

Pinwheel Sampler Update
I'm still tooling along with the ditch-work on the pinwheel sampler quilt. There are several reasons for that. First, I had the busiest work week in the history of ever last week. Second, I decided to do more stitch-in-the-ditch than I originally planned to. And third, I'm still a bit intimidated by my quilting plan, so I let the first two reasons slow me down. Procrastination at its most subtle. Here's an interesting section from the back. I can't wait to fill it all in with pretty scrolls and curlicues and at the same time, I'm scared I'll mess it up.

Too Many Irons In the Fire
While I was procrastinating the pinwheel sampler, I decided to work a bit on my Halloween quilt. It's up next on my list of Ph.D's. I got the top mostly put together. I'm going to piece some scrappy pumpkins and appliqué funny jack-o-lantern faces on them and put them in a row across the bottom. It's not in the original pattern, so I'm hoping it will fit in with the rest of the quilt. The border is going to be scrappy and the blocks are all appliqué. The jack-o-lanterns have both, so hopefully it will work.

Here's a close-up of the embroidered poem, which is something I added to the pattern too. You can see close-ups of the other blocks here.

And here is one of the place mats, also in progress. I did extras of each appliqué block, without any real idea for a layout in the place mats. I'm kind of flying by the seat of my pants here, which I'm not too fond of. I've got ideas for two of the remaining 5 and am probably going to do a little more procrastinating on the pinwheel sampler while I get them together, so I don't forget what I want to do.

Reunion: Survived
Dear Blog-Stalking Burglars,

Thank you for not robbing our house while we were at my 20-year High School reunion over the weekend, even though I told you ahead of time that I was going to be gone and you had plenty of opportunity to sneak in while we were out. I promise not to talk about leaving my house empty again before it actually happens.

xo –E

P.S. On second thought, if I give you my schedule for the next few weeks, could you please come and 'clean out' the garage?

So. The big 20-year reunion. It was exactly as awkward and uncomfortable as I imagined it would be. There were 660+ kids in my graduating class. I estimate that about 125 of them were at the reunion. And I still fit in exactly where I fit in back then. There were still the jocks and cheerleaders {one of them even did a cheer. Twice. While wearing heels.} and the popular kids. There were still the partiers. And I was still a nerd. But it was also a lot of fun. I loved seeing everyone again and the reunion committee did an incredibly amazing job with the program. Two of the top three people on my list of people I wanted to see again were there. The dinner was good and the dessert was chocolate. All in all, it was a fairly painless experience. And bless Mr. Bug's heart for coming along and spending what I can only imagine was the most boring evening of his life.

These are my FHA girls. Our senior year, Shawnelle {center} was in a state leadership position and Hollie {left} and I had leadership positions in our chapter. We were in FHA together all through high school, so we planned more than one event together and went to more than one convention together. These girls were some of my closest friends and it was really fun to see them again.

The chatter on Facebook over the last day or two is that everyone wants to get together again every year, and not wait so long for the next reunion. I'm not sure I could handle that much high school. I guess we'll have to see how I feel about it next year.

Today's post brought to you by:

Sunday Sermons: Watch Your Step

An old proverb says that a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. So, watch your step. –Jeffrey R. Holland

I Must Ask . . . Do You Make Your Bed?

My second favorite household chore is ironing. My first being hitting my head on the top bunk bed until I faint. –Erma Bombeck

Last week's question was about pets. I set up the initial poll wrong and so some votes were deleted because I decided it was more important to fix the poll than to keep the votes. I hope I didn't hurt anyone's feelings. It looks like dogs are by far the most popular pets. It only makes sense, since they are man's best friend.

I asked for pet stories and promised to share the best one. Well, I can never just choose one of anything, so I have three. I'll start with P., who told about one of the pets she had when her daughter lived at home. She said, I taught my parakeet Penny to wolf whistle and cluck like a chicken, and she also made this other noise I didn't recognize at first, until it occurred to me that it was the sound of my own laughter. Love it! Thanks for sharing, P.

My cute sister Jill, stopped by to tell about her pets. Here's what she had to say, We have two pets. It all started with a red betta fish named Billy. The Student Body President at the local high school thought it would be great to get the boys a fish. But then, Billy died. I think we didn't treat the water with all the right stuff. We had one water additive, but apparently we needed another. So we went to WM and got a pair of goldfish. See, both boys needed to pick one. We named one Alexander (Alex) and the other was Leah (after the signing time kids). But, as gold fish are "disposable" pets, Leah died and now we just have Alex.

Last summer, we decided that we'd like to add another family member. So we started looking online for Beagles who were in need of adoption. We found Lizzie. She'd been at the Humane Society for 3 months, and she was 8 years old. Her time was up. I couldn't leave her there. So we sent an e-mail and asked about her personality. They told us to bring the whole family down, to see how she does with the kids. I could not have picked a milder dog. She is so sweet and old. And we love her. We've had her a year now, and I know it's a year she might not have had if we didn't look for her when we did.

Plus, I know she's the best security system we could ever have. We had a kid come into our house at night (with our permission) who was not a family member. Lizzie went NUTS. She scared that kid so bad, and her barking and growling scared me out of my sleep, too. I can't imagine our house without her. Can you tell we're related .

And the last story is from me. I told you about our pair of fire-bellied toads named Pants. What I didn't tell you is that once upon a time we also had a dog. He was a black lab, the runt of the litter. So we named him Piccolo. We should have named him Sirius Black, because he wasn't runty for very long. The top photo is the day we brought him home. Oh, he was a cute little puppy. The bottom photo was two months and 11 days later and he was already bigger and weighed more than the then 5 year-old Grasshopper.

Piccolo chewed like crazy. I spent a minimum of $20 an month on rawhide for him to chew to keep him from chewing up the house. It only worked sometimes. Ever see Marley & Me? Remember the part where he chews a hole through the drywall? It was like that at our house too. We can only guess that he was trying to make his own doggie door, because it was in the wall right next to the back door and he chewed right through to the plywood that backs up to the brick on the exterior.

He was a beautiful dog, but he was a big {80+ pounds} and rambunctious puppy. He was too big for our little house and our little yard and our little family. So we gave him to a family on a farm. Seriously. That's not a euphemism. We felt it was our responsibility to find a new family for him and the people who took him actually lived on a farm.

Well, enough rambling about pets gone by. On to business. Beds. To make or not to make? That is the question. Growing up, that was one of our regular chores; make the bed every day. My mom's bed is always made. My grandma's bed was always made. And mine used to be made every day. But it isn't anymore. I was almost 16 when I dropped the habit and about the only time I make the bed now is if I'm changing the sheets. Oh, I straighten the covers every night before I get in, but I don't really make it. Do I feel bad about that? Nope. Not one bit. That is one un-done chore I have zero guilt about.

I was thinking about whether or not I should change my ways when it comes to bed-making while I was thinking out this post. And I decided that it is one thing that I don't really need to worry about right now. Mr. Bug sleeps during the day and I sleep during the night, so the bed would have to be made twice a day and would only stay made for a few hours after each making, and that is just one thing that is not high on my list of priorities right now. How about you? I must ask . . . do you make your bed?

16 Tons

You load sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt.
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go,
I owe my soul to the company store.
–Tennessee Ernie Ford, 16 Tons

The last week of each month is really busy for me at work. The first week of each month is even busier. I'm prepared for that. I know what has to be done, and I do it. But this week is shaping up to be all work and no play, which makes Jack a dull boy Elizabeth a little bit cross. Don't get me wrong. I really like the job I have. It is suited to me and I'm good at it {for the most part}. I have nice coworkers. I even have my own office now {which is so super awesome, I can't even tell you!}. But I don't like that it takes up so much of my day. So far this week, I've put in two nine-hour days and an almost eight-and-a-half hour day. And I'm not even half-way through my first-of-the-month stuff. Tonight we had take-out for dinner for the second night in a row. At 8:00 pm. I have seven loads of laundry that need folding and eight that need washing, the dishwasher hasn't been run since Monday, the weeds are up to my knees in the yard and the floors haven't been swept in I'm not telling how long. And all I really want to do is work on my Pinwheel Sampler quilt. I have two hours until I'm too sleepy to think straight. Do you think I can fit it all in?

I have a strict policy. Work stays at work. My time is mine. So, why am I whining about it in my personal bit of cyber space {which is another policy of mine — keep the whining on the internet to a minimum; 80% of people don't care about your problems and the other 20% are glad you have them}? Because anybody who says that housewives don't work is an idiot and anybody who thinks that a working mother doesn't really have two jobs is an even bigger idiot. After putting in a full day at work, coming home to a second shift of hungry, grumpy children who tease each other over their take-out dinners and fight you about helping with the chores is super not fun. So, I just needed someplace to put this so I can move on with the 87 chores I need to finish in the next 120 minutes. I'm feeling better already and ready to tackle Mt. Washmore. Everyone go back to whatever you were doing. There's nothing to see here. Move along. Or, enter my giveaway. Or take my poll {which I reset after eight of you had already voted on the first day because I forgot to include fish, which is a very important pet group, and because I forgot to allow for multiple choices, in case you have more than one pet} if you haven't already {or your vote got deleted because you voted sometime before last Thursday morning}. Or watch this video, you know, just for fun.

Hexie Notebook Giveaway

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. –Buddha

I wanted to do a little giveaway for my 500^th post, but it came and went and I didn't have any really great ideas. This is post 537, on a random Tuesday in August and since I have something I want to give away, today is as good a day as any.

Today, I want to give away a Hexie Art Journal. The winner can choose from the following designs: Sew Cherry {right}; Twilight themed {bottom left}, or Sanibel coordinates {in one of the three variations; top left}. Click on the photo for a closer look.

So what are you waiting for?

Leave me a comment and be entered to win!

The Fine Print:
• Non-blogging/non-Google users and international entrants are welcome.
• If you do not have a Google account, use the name/url {url optional} or anonymous commenting options and make sure you leave your contact information in your comment in case you win.
• Comments with no contact information will be deleted.
• Non-Google commenters, please leave your e-mail in your comment in the following format: address (at) domain name (dot) com.
• Google account users, not sure if your contact information will be attached to your comment? Click here:

• Duplicate comments will be deleted. Comment moderation is on, so don't panic when your comment doesn't show up. I'm notified of new comments and will approve them periodically each day, after which they'll show up on the post.
• The giveaway will close at 10:00 pm {MST} on Tuesday, August 9^th. Winner will be chosen by random drawing and notified by e-mail and announced here by 8:00 pm on August 10^th.

Good luck!