Monday, Monday

Well, it started out kinda slow. Didn't wake up till it was time to take Audrey to day care, so late we were. Saw a dead cat on the way to day care, so I knew it was going to be a challenging day.


It was, of course, a typical Monday....worked like a demon getting my eStyle books and records ready for the new year. We had our storage unit broken into and all my business records were stolen so 2008 will be the only records I have. Bad news. Hopefully business will start to pick up - right now we are very slow. This evening we threw out the couch Audrey has been sleeping in. She will sleep with her mother until it is time for her to go back to Indiana (which should be within the next three weeks). The good news is that in removing the couch (garbage), we made room to set up my quilting table. Until I can afford a new table, this will work for me.

Mike leaves for his new job in Illinois next week. I can't wait till I can join him back in the midwest. In the meantime, I'll let him contend with the ice and snow! I'll stay in sunny Las Vegas!

January.....

Today was a lazy Sunday. Spent most of the morning working on a January wall-hanging. This is a series that has a hanging for every month. Since I have a spot in my living room to hang quilts, I thought this would be fun! Molly is supervising - she had to get in the picture! I still need to quilt it and put the backing on it - then it will be ready to hang!

Later in the day Shari and I went to the Christmas Goose. The Goose is my favorite quilt store in Las Vegas. I love the people that own it and my friend Mary and I spend an awful lot of time (and money) there! Mary is my best Las Vegas friend and one of the main reasons I quilt as well as I do! She is a phenomenal quilter and shares her knowledge freely!

Shari worked on a table runner for her new apartment. She is almost finished, but has to put on the binding and backing.

I got a small purse that hangs on a belt - that is my next small project. I cut the fabric, but either I'm dyslexic or crazy - the directions make NO sense to me at all. Pitiful really!!! I also have the February wall-hanging to get started on as well as a new project on ANGELS to work on for one or both of my Angels (Josh's fiancee and Joe's wife). All in all, a productive day!

Go Giants Go!!!

While not a big football fan, Shari and I spent the day working on my son Joe's Holiday quilt. Of course, it has a New York Giants theme. It's a BQ quilt - I made the same one for my grandson Joey - his had a fish theme. If you want to make a quilt in a day, this is the one for you. Of course, it is really a twin size or lap quilt. On Monday, it will go to Abby's house for quilting. Tomorrow I will go to the Christmas Goose to make a pillowcase to go with it! It was fun and easy - and I can just see Joe sitting on his couch watching the football game with this and Weenie dog in his lap.

It took Shari and me about 9 hours to make the quilt and we have one little problem that we have to fix - if we can't, then Abby will do it for us! We still have a problem with our seams not always coming together....when the quilt gets heavy it pulls the bottom layer out. We don't always catch it and it leaves a gap in the quilt. Hopefully we will get better and better and this won't be a problem!

Tomorrow Shari will work on her quilt as she only has a couple of months to finish it. She doesn't get a chance to work on it every day and hers will be a large queen sized quilt.

Now off to bed with a good book - or should I say The Good Book. I am reading the Bible from cover to cover and I'm in 1 Kings. Sometimes its fast reading and sometimes slow - right now, SLOW.

Christmas on the Strip

Mike and I spent alot of Christmas Day wandering up and down the Strip. We went to the new opening of Wynn's newest casino - Encore. It is truly beautiful, but I am partial to the flagship Wynn Casino. From there we went to the Wynn, then across the street to the new Palazzo. It was quite nice, but again, I am partial to the flagstrip Venetian Hotel. Once we were done at the Venetian (where we had a delicious Sabrett hot dog and cream soda), we moved on to Ceasars Palace. We meandered around there a bit and sat and had a wonderful capaccino and cookie! One thing that we did notice is that there was a decided lack of Christmas decorations in the casinos. We were there last year, and there were many more elaborate decorations. Plus the crowds were down from last year. It looks like hard economic times until next year.

Finally we headed home, and as we were leaving Treasure Island (where we had parked) we had to head past a Pearl place. You pick an oyster, and open it to find a pearl! I picked a nice sized pearl and had it made into a ring! What fun it was!!! I was given another choice, and I picked a pearl of the same size! We did hoop and holler and attracted quite the crowd!

All in all, a great day was had by all! Poor Shari, Jamie and Audrey were all sitting home sick with a fever and sore throat.

We ended the evening by watching the new Indiana Jones movie. I sat and worked on the binding of my Women of Grace and Charm quilt. I watched the whole movie and only got one half of the quilt done! Pitiful!!!

Mike got me a beautiful mizpah (sp). It's a necklace that is broken in half - he wears one and I wear one. I love it and it was a beautiful thought on his part!

Merry Christmas 2008!

Audrey's Third Birthday

We had a blast this past weekend celebrating Audrey's third birthday. The best thing for her is that her daddy came home! There were tears of joy from both parties! Her Aunt Abby and Uncle Thatch also came to help celebrate and we had a wonderful weekend. Lots of quilting, shopping and eating for all of us! Thatch and Abby stayed in a beautiful suite at the Red Rock Casino complements of our host Manny. It was a beautiful room with a strip view. We had hor d'ourves there Saturday night.

Abby made Audrey a beautiful Tinkerbell nightgown. Audrey has worn it every night since it was done! Abby also brought some beautiful Christmas gifts for all that were hand made - she made little cupcake pin cushions that are adorable. I needed it because I lose pins all the time when I am sewing and take them off!

Here is a picture of the quilt that Abby made for me. Her quilting is getting better and better! She also finished Little Joey's quilt and Shari's quilt - both were really nice.
It's good to have Jamie home. He is taking care of Audrey and giving us all a much needed break. I forgot how hard 24/7 child care is!!!!

Hope to get alot of quilting done this week. I want to log my projects and make sure I work on at least one of them a little every day!

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas!

Snow Day!

It's a snow day today - snow is falling and songs are being sung. It's beginning to look alot like Christmas. I had to let Audrey play in the snow so I wrapped her up in a coat of mine and sent her out on her motocycle (tricycle). Look how cute!

Lots of cleaning to do to get ready for holiday company - so no quilting for a little while. The machine has been put away and all projects are on hold until after Christmas. We will be meeting up with Abby and Thatch in Phoenix to go visit the horse - then back here for Audrey's birthday party! Audrey's Dad Jamie will be home on Saturday and then LET THE PARTY BEGIN!

I think I will go down, put on Elvis Christmas and get to work!

Bright colors.

Today was an Audrey day so I didn't get near as much accomplished as I had hoped to. I pulled out my bright scrappy quilt to work on. The blocks are big and bright - they remind me of a day at the beach!

The block on the right is just one block and there are about 30 of them to do! I think I've gotten about 11 of them done. It will be a big quilt! The only problem is - I am SO not a bright person, give me blues, mauves, greens - I like the look of vintage florals much better than brights. So I guess I will need to find a home for this quilt when it is finished!

Heather found me a quilting group to follow - I've signed up and do enjoy reading what people have to say. It is so easy just to sit in front of this computer all day - but then you get nothing done.

Thank goodness tomorrow is FRIDAY!