My Prize has been ordered :)

Well, I figured out the prize for the week :) It's Wii Fit !! Yeah!! I'm very excited. I love some of these new video games actually make you get up up off your duff and do something to play. Shaun Whiteaka Carrot Top has a snowboarding game coming out in 2 weeks- that just may be my next prize :) Hubby was a bit taken back on the Wii purchase until I explained that the game and shipping is less than half of what I was spending a month on cigarettes. Oh then it was ok- silly man like I needed his permission. LOL.
Ok I need to get to the post office and do some mommy stuff before the trick or treaters start coming around 4ish

Why wait till New Years.....

Been an interesting few days/week here. DS went to the DRS earlier this month and came back with high bp ( borderline) high cholesterol,over weight ( most of us are) but with heart disease running in the family as well as diabetes - enough is enough. A few weeks ago I purged the cabinets of junky foods. Processed foods, those granola/cereal bars that have high frutose corn syrup as the second ingredient-juices. And started replacing it with better for you foods, raw veggies- brown rice vs white- same with pasta. Much complaining from the men- none from DD aka Veggie Girl.
I dragged them all the the YMCA and bought a 3 month trial period for the family. I highly doubt that hubby will ever go again- DS and I are going next week as soon as they get us a trainer to acclimate us to the machines etc. I wanted to take water aerobics but the chlorine smell is so overwhelming at the pool :(
This morning DS had an appointment with a Nutritionist. Almost 2 hours in a room with him and the dr. I wanted to shoot myself. But I don't have to go anymore except to pay the nice lady. Maybe now all the stuff I've been harping about for 3 years or so will mean something since someone else told it to him. And I get to pack him a lunch 3 days a week- lucky me :)
He was told to lose more than my ticker tracker and I'd love to see him succeed. I've already lost 5 lbs in 2 weeks and that's with quitting smoking *VBS* I hope I can continue to lose. Wonder what my prize will be this week???

Philley's Win!!!

image "borrowed" from flickr


I really love that the Philley's won last night. I hate the Seling changed the rules of the game to suit him again -you know "suspending" the game even though 5 innings were played before Tampa Bay tied it. Kinda stinks of the All Star game "tie" a few years ago doesn't it? But I read the online articles of the vandilisim that took place in Philley last night. Make me ill- so No I won't let the kids cut school to see the parade next week.
I have to call Grandma today- I'm sure she's very happy her Philley's won the series. :) Bet Nanette is too :)

more animals

It's Raining- It's Pouring

How's that for a weather picture? The World Series game is in rain delay- all up and down the state we're getting flooding rain- add the falling leaves and white pine needles are shedding too....DD's driving a carful of kids to a concert tonight halfway down the state- say a prayer please. I have 2 more rows on the halloween quilt and then I have to still quilt it. I have 10 more maple leaves to make for the mystery from last weekend.
DD asked me to make a quilt for her new beau. Red and black with Chinese characters embroidered.Will have to look for a site to buy a bunch.....

Living with Veggie Girl and other stuff

Food has been interesting to say the least. I have always had a policy of IF you don't like my dinner feel free to have cereal, eggs or a sandwich. But I'm not cooking twice. And we've lived with it almost 19 years. Now DD aka Veggie Girl thinks I should cook special for her in addition to the family meal. I don't think so.

In the last 2 months she's acquired quite a few books of vegetarian cooking. Some better than others But the craziest book by far doesn't seem like a vegetarian cookbook but a diet book. Let's read an excerpt from shall we.....
"You will pee your pants when you see how much weight you lose from giving up dairy. The fat in cheese us what gives it the taste and texture we love. Of the calories in cheese, 70-80 percent comes from fat. Even if you're buying the low fat,part skim nonsense, more than half comes from fat. fat free? Give us a freaking break! Remember what milk is for? It is designed to fatten up baby cows. Do you really believe it can be made fat free? Get your head out of your ass. Milk=fat. Butter=fat Cheese=fat. People who think these products can be low fat or fat free+fucking morons"
Lovely huh? Then there's the never ending PETA crap about cruelty to animals and how animals are grown fatter to feed us and live these horrible lives. Enough already. It's kinda like the corn industry telling us High frutose corn syrup is perfectly natural and won't hurt us down the road. I totally believe in the eat local and organic if you can philosophy. Trader Joes and Whole Foods are 2 of my fav stores. But more and more super markets are carrying organic food which is helping bring the cost down. Enough of DD antics- she is learning to cook very well and certain topics are now off limits at the table.

Let's see on my health front - I'm still tabacco free for 2 weeks! Yeah! Hubby bought me more Fiesta ware last night :) Says it's cheaper than ciggys. The patch was giving me migraines so I stopped using it after 2 days and I'm still getting migraines :( but they should leave in another month or so I'm told. We still haven't found what I'm allergic too- no food dyes, no foods and none of the other stuff, dust, mold etc. So we may never know what caused it. I have a month to see if I want to continue the testing.

I went for a mamo and got questionable results back that pissed me off. I was told I wouldn't get results till today or tomorrow and last Saturday I got the results in the mail that say follow up with reg dr about "the area of concern" WTF!. I have an appointment next Tuesday with my doc and we shall see what she says.

So needless to say, I've gotten zero sewing/quilting done since the weekend :( . Hubby leaves tonight for Buffalo again. So it's going to be me against the teens- I so hate to be out numbered. But i need to make some rice for dinner- we like veggie refried rice for dinner- so I need to get the rice made before I run to the market for some stir fry veggies. DS is on his own for dinner.....

Sunday Stuff

Let's discuss these :

A week ago I was doing laundry and the next thing I knew I was waking up on the floor in the laundry room. I have no idea how long I was out- I do know the song changed on the ipod. Went to the ER and they ended up admitting me overnight. I tell you- I was NOT amused in the least. But since I fainted for no good reason ( is there a good reason to faint?) I got the fall risk bracelet...meaning I couldn't get out of bed w/o a nurse or hubby !

On the bright side of that ( being in the hospital) I'm trying to quilt smoking again. It's been a few hours short of a week. The first 2 days I wore one of thosde nicoderm patches but got a killer headache- so I stopped using them and still have a killer headache :( . But I used to smoke like a fiend at the computer so I've been trying to avoid being at my desk except for guild "stuff" and arguing with insurance companies.

One of my groups is doing a not so mysterious fall mystery. Here's my center. I'm working on the blocks for the outer border. Maybe this week I'll finish them. But I have to get that darn morning star one pieced and quilted by Friday or next Monday the latest and get it mailed to AZ. No Leah, sorry. Not for you.




I finally finished this Halloween Wallhanging this evening- it's about time. I love the striped binding.



Looks like sudden death for ALCS tonight. Do you think Boston has it in them to come from 3 behind again??? I'm rooting for Grandma's Philley's no matter who playes for AL. But did you see that Tek FINALLY got a hit and a homer at that last night! I wonder what Boston is going to do about resigning Tek. He had a terrible year granted but he's the Captain of the team. And you know Boston is going to leary of a big contract like Posada got- cause Jorge was hurt almost all of this year.

We have a Winner ..............

For the fall giveaway.....
DS drew a name from a bowl and the winner is......Tango!!!
Tango wrote:

Saturday, October 04, 2008
tango's trash & treasures said...
Wow that's too cute!! Great Idea too!! Thanks for the chance to enter

Tango's got a cute blog also.

So I will gather the kit up and get it in the mail once I get an address- that's usually very helpful -lol.
Thanks for playing everyone.....


Here's a pic of the teens on Monday apple picking:


And these are the latest of jewelery given when you show up at the ER and they admit you overnight. But that's a story for another day's blog.

Stashbuster Winnings

Yesterday I was informed I won the no buy challenge on the Stashbuster yahoo group! There's been too many posts on the group and I was planning on reading digests later this week. Imagine my surprise- I was careful with my purchases that I needed and then with all the legal buys.










Oh my goodness- look at all that! I want to make a jacket out of some of them. I need to start sorting by color and see what we have. But wow! That's alot of fabric.



Nancy dressed up the box so cutely- thanks for the extra effort.





Another side :)



Yesterday I was invited to go to a wholesale warehouse to do some shopping. I managed to get a couple bolts of fabric- one for backings and one of a creamy/beige marble for making the embroidered state blocks into a quilt. So that one was a background color. I'm trying to get away from wows and cows all the time. I also managed to buy a bolt of fusible fleece to make totes and purses with. But there was no Moda - that could have been dangerous. And they had hoffman batiks but you have to buy anywhere from 12-18 yards of the fabric,depending on how it was cut. That's alot of fabric to have to use over and over again.

Question for my Readers

What was your wedding song?
And if you're like me and did it more than once- name them all :P





My first wedding song was Sea of Love by Robert Plant and the Honey Drippers ( remember them?)


Marriage lasted 3 years- long story but I'm lucky to get out.

This time hubby chose the song from a movie we watched together.
Good Morning Vietnam-
Louie Armstrong What a Wonderful World


When we renewed our vows at 10 years (GASP! almost 10 years ago this June) we used Unchained Melody by U2 ( Bono rocks *S*)

So I'm nosey and want to know.
And no we're not renewing them this year, we're waiting till 25 years

Sunday Musings

Last night I decided to put this together. It's not what I wanted but there were too many different lines of fabric used- 2 packs of charms and 1 panel. - I have extra cat blocks of the panel left that I think I'll just send to the winner of the Fall Giveaway.






In my next life I want to be a cat. It's raining and dreary here. I went to take a pic of the wall hanging and I found Moose sleeping next to hubby on the couch all wrapped in a quilt.....



Leaving in a few for the State Guild quilt show meeting.....another day of not getting my stuff done :(

Another Finish

I need to pay better attention. This quilt top has been on my blog for what? A week? And I've pressed it and measured it- you would think that before I got to the last 12" of quilting I would have saw the mistake in the star points :( I started screaming- hubby thought that crazy spider from last month reappeared on my frame !
Nothing I can do now- I'm sure the newborn won't care and it's a lesson learned.



Here's the label-




Now yesterday at the farm I bought this pumpkin/gourd because of the coolness of the shell- it's two different colors.



And the other side is a different color-

Apple Crisp Recipe

This is how we make it. It's actually in the oven now- the house smelly heavenly......but we cheated and made a half batch :)


Apple Crisp
9 cups apples ( about 10)
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup flour
1 cup rolled oats ( Look for the Quaker Dude)
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground all spice
2/3 c butter cut into cubes

Preheat to 350*

Slice and peel apples set aside
Mix all dry ingredients together and mix well.
Take small cubes of butter and mix into the dry ingredients till you get small pea sized crumbs.

Stir apples into crumb mixture - coating well.

Bake in a greased 9x11 pan 30-35 minutes.

Yummy over ice cream :)

Friday stuff

Is this the cutest little pumpkin or what? It measures about 2 1/2" tall without the stem *VBS* I met my bestest friend since kindergarden at a local farm store- we had picked up a sandwich to split and bought ourselves some soup and bottled water and had a picnic on my truck's tailgate. Got a ton of produce for dinner and the weekend's meals.



I swear DD's going vegetarian is killing my food budget- but hopefully we're all healthier for it. Plus this shopping every 2 or 3 days for produce is a time killer....oh well.

Guess what's for dinner this evening???



Chicken FRITIJAS!!! Doesn't this pie plate of veggies look delish?
Cilantro is hard to find here fresh so I have to use the dried flakes :( Got the gaucamole, sour cream and cheese, we are good to go.

Seasoning Mix
I have no idea where I got this recipe from ( maybe Chef P) but I use it all the time.

3TBS cornstarch
2TBS chili powder
1TBS Paprika
1TBS Sugar
2 1/2 tsp bouillon ( I used herb ox sodium free)
1 1/2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp ground cumin

I put it through a metal strainer and keep in a glass airtight jar . It's yummy.


I think I'll make some apple crisp for dessert ....can you tell fall is in the air here????

Quilt for a Friend

Last Wednesday night I was told a friend had been diagnosed with breast cancer :( I told the family I would make her a quilt. Now of course I need to quilt the other quilt for a baby shower but I felt this one needed finishing first. So this morning I loaded it on the frame and started quilting it. While I was in for lunch I designed the label and stitched it out this evening before dinner.
I just finished the binding a few minutes ago.






Here's the last thing to do, sew on the label I made for the quilt,
oh then wash and dry it.



Now I wait and see when my sister is going to pick it up for delivery. :D