Blogging Blahs

Have y'all gone through the blogging blahs yet? 

I seem to have hit a bump in my blogging road since the flood of Hurricane Lee struck. 

I'm sure it's a mixture of part exhaustion, part depression, and part forgetting what I did that might've been interesting, and that probably circles back to the part exhaustion. 

My body is tired of 12-15hour cleaning days spent lugging boxes, scrubbing surfaces, weeding through random crap that was thrown quickly into packing boxes in trying to save said crap from the flood, all the while also dealing with my beloved kitty, Stanley dying, my Grandma passing away, and Montie's gravestone being delivered. 

No, I haven't been to see it yet. Don't ask me why, cause I'm not sure. I care too much about it, I care too little about it ~ both statements would be accurate depending on which day. 

But I've set a date for myself on Monday to go visit it bright & early & to take pictures. 

Of course this doesn't exclude other mentally exciting events such as my daughter being attacked by her ex & he subsequently going to jail (court date in Dec. of which to look forward!), my hub's truck dying, my daughter calling from a cornfield  which she'd landed within when she hit black ice, a vacuum dying, a broken carpet cleaner, hormonally charged fights between my two teenage girls (the last of which resulted in stuffing/filling being stuck to my family room ceiling ~and yes, it's still there), etc... 

In the meantime, I've actually quilted a LOT of quilts that haven't been shown. During flood time, the shop I quilt for called to say a woman had 11 quilt **11 QUILTS** she needed quilted by the following week. Wouldn't you know this was while my large quilting machine was torn down & residing on my eldest daughter's bed (in protection from first floor flooding.) 

Whatever, that's Murphy's Law, eh?

BUT I got 'em done! 

But I digress, now I'm off on a tangent. And that's my brain & my life these last few months. Haphazard & scattered (more than is even usual for me!) 

So to wrap up my blah blog, some eye candy...

T-shirt top quilted with "flames"

This one had very fluffy batting!

A garden top quilted with "fishes"

 A Christmas top quilted with ____ -ugh, I can't remember & I'm just way too lazy at this moment to drag myself two rooms away to look (I'll probably be annoyed w/myself over this tomorrow, but oh well....)

A warm, sunny day for Dino to enjoy a small green spot in the backyard

And a few days later we had a snowstorm!! 

~I hope you're all enjoying this autumn ~ 

Dirty Details on Denise

I'm not sure if any of these will end up actually being "dirty" in any way whatsoever, but since I'm keen on alliteration, I'm keeping that title!! 

Both V.V. Denman & Leah Singer, writers/bloggers with whom I've recently become acquainted, did this kind of list on their blogs, and I found it to be so much fun. I hope it is for you, too, and that you'll do your own list of facts, because it's an interesting way to get to know one another better!

So here goes... the interesting, the obvious & the drivel:

Was a total tomboy who preferred having dirt bomb battles to playing Barbies

Hated History as a subject 

Chemistry & English are my favorites

I love to type after I've cut my nails (hate the click click of nails on a keyboard!)

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to read more than just about anything else

I got married when I was 17 & not yet graduated from high school, and I WAS NOT pregnant!!

Finished high school in a continuation school in the CA desert while married

(they didn't know what to do w/me when they looked at my transcripts -- they weren't capable of helping me finish many of my credits: Physics, French 4, British Lit... it was a weird experience)

AND I've been married to that high school sweetheart for 23 years now

I have three angel babies waiting in Heaven for me

(little Marshall lost at 20 weeks due to a knot in the umbilical cord, another at 9 weeks whom I always think in my mind as Maddie, and Montie @ 10yr)

I've lived in NJ, PA, CA, MD, and MI, but now we're back in PA 

I've gone to three colleges over the last 23 years, amassed 90+ credits & but STILL haven't earned a degree

My favorite place to be is at home, but if you'd force me to leave, I'd want to be at the beach

Rainy days give me creative urges

I read every night before bed (I would say 8 times out of 10 I read fiction)

I've homeschooled all three of my kiddos, graduated my oldest daughter, and am down to one either grader who's probably going to public school next year 

Longarm quilting is way more fun than piecing... just saying

My heart skipped a beat when I saw The Writer had come in the mail today :)

My favorite place to eat lately is Isaac's (The Club Canary-YUM)

For my birthday tomorrow I've requested an ice cream cake for dessert

I'm mostly introverted & love my alone time (NEED my alone time)

Half a dozen years ago I flew to London w/my hubby & saw Depeche Mode perform 

at Wembly Stadium

My first car was a Honda Civic -really old & blew a lot of exhaust into the air daily (clouds of it that rendered me thoroughly embarrassed in the high school parking lot)

My first job was as a Pharmacy Technician. Between PA & CA I worked a few years in pharmacy & so I'm able to decipher doctor's prescriptions

Before we had kids, we lived in Baltimore City, and I walked to & from work every day

My younger daughter & I have "seen" the same images in our 222 year old home during the same night in different bedrooms

Our old house has been a blacksmith shop, a working tavern where people also paid to sleep,  a bed & breakfast, and now it's just our home

In 9th grade I won first place at both our school & then our regional science fairs for my Physics project on friction

 

My all-time favorite movie is The Sound of Music

I was so proud of myself when at around 16/17 years old I could play the entire Rogers & Hammersteins music from The Sound of Music!

I took 10+ years of piano lessons

We have a very out of tune baby grand piano

I love coffee & most sweets

Am running out of things to say

But I still have room until I get to the bottom of this Sound of Music pic

Almost there...

Okay all, now it's your turn. Let me know when you've posted your own list of little-known-facts!

Quilt Show Ramblings & Some Eye Candy

I'll admit to not being particularly inspired to write much of anything this last week. Lots of emotional stuff just clouding my thoughts. 

But in an effort to push past, I thought I'd share something that does make me feel inspired...

my trip the the AQS Lancaster Quilt Show!!

This venue was anticipating upward of 20,000 attendees representing 48 states & 4 countries! This amazes me, since we live right in the middle of Cow Town USA, BUT we are known for our quilts!

I don't me "we" as if I'm known for my quilts, because I most certainly am not -just meaning in the more collective Lancaster County, PA way ;-P

I like to look at the spectacular quilts, BUT, they do often give me a bit of the "will I ever grow up to quilt like that????" feeling. The talent can be a bit overwhelming. 

Of course I try to reassure myself that I COULD if I REALLY put my mind to it. I just choose not to. I'll concede that some of the quilts, those with the perfect, tiny stitches that just about cause your eyeballs to implode from strain, would more than likely truly push me over the edge into the oblivion of insanity. 

(Or wait, am I already there?)

I didn't take any classes while there. I'd been hoping for a longarm quilt class, but there wasn't anything offered for me. (Looking forward to Hershey's show in July for that!)

And really, if I'm going to be honest here, I go for the shopping. Period. It's something akin to the giddy pre-teen girl feelings over boys -- only it's not. It's middle-to-older-aged women getting giddy over fat quarters, notions, threads, and patterns out the wazoo!!!

So here's my loot:

Big cones of thread for the longarm machine!

 I'm loving this Australian woman's designs -she combines simple embroidery stitches with piecing/quilting. (The two on the left are Lynette Anderson Designs.)

These patterns below are for my mini 12"X12" standing quilt frame.

 My good friend, Suzanne, and I bought the red "Holster". It's touted as a rotary cutter holster, but we thought it looked a little small for our rotaries & decided they'd be perfect for holstering our cell phones to our jeans!!

Then there are some fabric markers, a scary looking scalpel I use for mega stitching errors, and some Handy Nets for my big cones of thread.

 I was beyond ecstatic when I saw AQS had added THIMBLES to their collectibles this year!!!!! Yes, I collect thimbles! 

And I always get a pin at the bigger shows that offer them. Not last year, though, because they were overrun by our masses & ran out.

 And the real Eye Candy is the fabric...

I guess you realize I didn't happen up this kitty at the quilt show. No, but my Furry Purry Stan Stan the Hairy Man was waiting for me when I got home.

Pen with Paper versus Computer

Do you have a preference?

When you write, if you write, do you prefer using pen with paper or the computer? 

Not long ago if you'd asked me this, I wouldn't have hesitated to respond with an answer of "pen with paper". I've always like the act of putting ink onto paper. And I've enjoyed many afternoons rereading journal entries from years gone by.

But nowadays I'm so used to doing so much on the computer, typing is faster & less painful on the hands & wrists for me. I think I've come to appreciate the quickness with which I can get words written out on the computer. 

But it's just not the same as paging through a journal. It's not the same as seeing all those dented, written upon pages, and holding them, to really KNOW I've written them. 

Oh yes, I know, I can visually SEE I've written (typed) something on the computer for years afterward, too, however, I hate the act of scrolling through various pages. My eyes hate when I scroll for them. And then my eyes send their complaint to my brain = headache.

Currently I vacillate between an online journal, my paper journal shown above, and my blog, which is still typing online but in a different place. I'm getting annoyed with myself with having so many different areas of journalling going on. If I want to look back for something that I wrote about, I'm never sure with which source to begin.

So for now I'm going to keep going back & forth until I at least fill this butterfly notebook. Because I'm anal-retentive & I cannot leave it half blank & fully commit somewhere else :-)

Take care...

Can anyone lend a helping hint on posting properly??

So I've been trying for the better part of the last hour to get my post to coordinate WITH my photos ... every time I upload a photo, it just gets thrown at the top of my writing. Then when I tried to upload several at a time, regardless of the format I chose, they all get clumped together.

What on earth am I doing wrong?? I tried to cut/paste to move pics around, but then the text went to some hyperlink font... ummmm ... is it just me?? I notice my fellow bloggers are able to insert/add pics within their text.... HOW pray tell??

I would be very grateful if someone would enlighten me....

Denise