Musings of a La-Z-Boy Potato

You can't really call me a couch potato, the couch is Rod's domain.  But I am a La-Z-Boy potato.  I love my recliner - it's like my throne.  Yes, I do go to bed in the bed at night, but when I awake for a mid-night potty break, I return to my recliner and sleep there the rest of the night.  It all started after my sister passed away, I was beginning menopause, and had insomnia really bad.  Wow, am I glad that part of my life is over. But I spend way too much time with my recliner.  My goal for the next month is to spend less time on my throne and more time moving.

I can't believe it's been so long since I posted here.  Did you miss me?  I'd like to say that I've been really busy, but I'm not sure that's the case.  Daughter Mary introduced me to Pinterest, and now I think I'm addicted.  No matter what I'm looking for, I look on Pinterest.  I love seeing all the pictures, I love all the ideas I find there.  Do you "Pinterest"?  Look for me and click to follow me.

I have been doing some things other than with the laptop, too.  I have hand-pieced 5 blocks for a Saddle Up Quilt, and blocks 6 and 7 are in various stages of completion.  The last of my baskets are here, and hopefully I can finish putting the fabric away this week.

  I had planned on tossing some fabrics that I have been saving for no special reason.  But over the weekend, I bought and downloaded this pattern from Carlene Westberg's Etsy shop.  I love it!! and can't wait to get started on one. I saved scraps of Pitt and Penn State fabrics, and hopefully these will make a great drawstring bag.  Might try to sell them somewhere.  I need to decide what fabrics I will use for mine.  Wouldn't this be a great bag for Mary, who begins her student teaching on March 5?

Since my first cold this fall, I have had congestion and wheezing in my chest and throat, and I have had shortness of breath when I move around.  Don't know why, but it had become really irritating.  Yesterday, we made plans to go out to dinner with the twins.  As I was getting dressed, I got a coughing spell.  It lasted about 20 minutes, it scared me, and when it was finished, I felt exhausted.  On the way home from the restaurant, I got another coughing spell.  When I got home, I was tired and didn't feel too well.  But when I woke up this morning, there was no congestion. . . no shortness of breath.  I don't understand it, but I'm thanking God for whatever it was.  It feels so great to breathe free again.  Hopefully moving more, drinking more water, and sitting less will keep me feeling this great.  Have a great week.

Happy Birthday to My "Babies"

Today my "babies" turn 32.  Hard to believe, and today I think back to when they were born.  I was only 29 weeks into my pregnancy, and the doctors had stopped my labor twice before.  But this time, there was no stopping it.  After I had labored for 10 hours, the doctors decided that a C-section was necessary.  Because of my diabetes, the babies were large - 3 lb. 4oz. and 3 lb. 6oz.  But they were given only a 10% chance of survival.  Each time we thought we would get them home, there was another setback.  But after 7 weeks, they were ready to come home.  They had a tough time getting started, but have had few health problems since.  I call them my miracles.

This picture was taken when they were a little over a year old.  Pat is sitting with her Pap, and Pam is sitting with her Dee.

These are Halloween costumes we put together when Rod wasn't working.  I dyed mop heads red, added red tape to their tights, and they went as Raggedy Ann's.  They were not amused, to say the least.

This was the day they made their First Communion.  Again, the dresses were homemade.

This was one of their Senior pictures.  It's one of the few times that they had seriously different haircuts.

These are two of the greatest young women you would ever want to meet.  They love their horses and their dogs.  They own cows, drive the tractor, plow fields, cut hay and clean stalls.  They are completely devoted to their family.  When Bubba is hospitalized, they are there every day to offer support to Mary and Jim.  They take Izzy swim class when Kristin has to work.  They do all they can to make my life easier and are there whenever their dad needs help.  And they are soooo much fun.  We are planning a trip to Disney in September, just the four of us.  I can't wait. They are great friends to each other and to those who are lucky enough to be called their friends.   And so, Happy Birthday to my youngest girls -you are truly my heroes.

Gettin' There

Just sitting here watching the Super Bowl.  Loved Madonna's half-time show.  She was always one of my favorite singers, as long as I didn't have to watch her.

I worked most of the weekend in the sewing room, and I am really pleased with what I got accomplished.  Rod came in and fixed the one drawer in the filing cabinet that didn't work.  I'm just a shorty, and of course it was the third drawer.  Wouldn't have mattered much had it been the top drawer.  Then he helped me clean up the floor.  On Friday, we had picked up the two sets of baskets that I had ordered from Walmart and had shipped to our store.  Today, we used all them, and today I ordered two more sets.  That makes a total of 7 sets at $20 a pop, but I love the way they look, and my fabrics like them too. (they told me so)  And in cleaning up the floor and emptying some boxes, I found the strap for the Tinkerbell dress (can you see me doing the happy dance?), and I also found a quilt that is almost finished for the Saddle Up.  I was thinking that I was going to have to order some fabric to put together the transportation quilt that I had started for Bubby; but in cleaning up, I found a two yard piece of fabric with lots of cars, etc. on it.  Rod hung up my new dry erase/magnetic/ cork board, and I printed out my word for 2012 onto card stock, attached some magnetic tape and positioned it onto the magnetic board.  I have some fabrics left to put away, and need to put away the T-shirts and I'm ready to begin the raffle quilt for Becky's spaghetti dinner.  The more I accomplish, the more I want to do.  So, move on McDuff!

So Far, So Good

Do you remember when I showed you this part of my sewing room and what a mess it was?  Well, I've been working on it a little at a time, and it's finally starting to take shape.  You can see some of my fabric shelves to the left of the buffet.

Here's what it looks like right now.  It still looks a little messy, but the stack of books and the books in the plastic container are ready to be put away.  To the left of the books is a stack of T-shirts ready to be put inside the buffet (I just need to clean out a space)

This, however, is the area that I'm most excited about.  I ordered these fabric bins from Walmart.com, since they are not available in the stores.  I ordered three sets (9 bins) to begin with.  They are all in use now, and I have ordered two more sets, which I had shipped to my local Walmart and will pick up tomorrow night.  I had started to roll my fabric before stuffing neatly putting it into the bins.  After seeing some baskets that others use, I just started flat-folding my fabrics like they were on the shelves and laying them into the bins.  Believe it or not, I was able to put more fabric in each bin.  The pile of fabric on the right side of the middle shelf are extra large pieces that I bought for backings.  I'm thinking that I may buy pants hangers to put them on and hang them in the closet in the sewing room.  I may have one or two old hangers just hanging around somewhere.  Memo to self:  look for those hangers.  While I was cleaning off the buffet top, I found some blocks that I had started for a quilt for Bubby a few years ago.  I didn't care for them and so never finished them.  I quickly tossed them into the trash.  After thinking about how these blocks were nearly done, I decided to take them back out, finish them, and put them together for a quilt for the Saddle Up.  I just hate throwing out anything that might be useful.

While putting the fabric into the bins, I pulled out some nice sized pieces that I haven't used in probably 10 years.  I was going to put them aside for Goodwill.  And then I found some good pieces that weren't folded and were just sort of thrown around.  Aha, said I, the granddaughters have been playing with my fabric again.  I've told you before that Krissy is a budding fashion designer.  Here's one of the outfits she made for Izzy when they were spending some time here.  What I decided to do is to put these fabrics into a special bag for them to use for their fashion design -- with the understanding that they are responsible for cleaning up their mess.  Hopefully, they will leave Grammy's fabric alone then.

I did want to get a dry erase board like I had talked about.  Unlike my friend Nancy who has a BASR (big ass sewing room),  I have a very small sewing room.  I'll call it my TTSR (teeny tiny sewing room)  So, my empty space is very limited.  I also found this on pinterest.com and loved the idea.  It's fabric on cork board.

 By searching online, I found a board on Amazon.com that I thought could serve both purposes.  The dry erase side is also magnetic.  And then there's the cork side.  I think that I can put on my thinking cap and figure out a way that I can make a fabric cover with pockets for this side.  If I ever finish with all that I have planned, I should have a cute and neatly organized TTSR.  So, I guess I should get off here and get busy.

So Far, So Good

Do you remember when I showed you this part of my sewing room and what a mess it was?  Well, I've been working on it a little at a time, and it's finally starting to take shape.  You can see some of my fabric shelves to the left of the buffet.

Here's what it looks like right now.  It still looks a little messy, but the stack of books and the books in the plastic container are ready to be put away.  To the left of the books is a stack of T-shirts ready to be put inside the buffet (I just need to clean out a space)

This, however, is the area that I'm most excited about.  I ordered these fabric bins from Walmart.com, since they are not available in the stores.  I ordered three sets (9 bins) to begin with.  They are all in use now, and I have ordered two more sets, which I had shipped to my local Walmart and will pick up tomorrow night.  I had started to roll my fabric before stuffing neatly putting it into the bins.  After seeing some baskets that others use, I just started flat-folding my fabrics like they were on the shelves and laying them into the bins.  Believe it or not, I was able to put more fabric in each bin.  The pile of fabric on the right side of the middle shelf are extra large pieces that I bought for backings.  I'm thinking that I may buy pants hangers to put them on and hang them in the closet in the sewing room.  I may have one or two old hangers just hanging around somewhere.  Memo to self:  look for those hangers.  While I was cleaning off the buffet top, I found some blocks that I had started for a quilt for Bubby a few years ago.  I didn't care for them and so never finished them.  I quickly tossed them into the trash.  After thinking about how these blocks were nearly done, I decided to take them back out, finish them, and put them together for a quilt for the Saddle Up.  I just hate throwing out anything that might be useful.

While putting the fabric into the bins, I pulled out some nice sized pieces that I haven't used in probably 10 years.  I was going to put them aside for Goodwill.  And then I found some good pieces that weren't folded and were just sort of thrown around.  Aha, said I, the granddaughters have been playing with my fabric again.  I've told you before that Krissy is a budding fashion designer.  Here's one of the outfits she made for Izzy when they were spending some time here.  What I decided to do is to put these fabrics into a special bag for them to use for their fashion design -- with the understanding that they are responsible for cleaning up their mess.  Hopefully, they will leave Grammy's fabric alone then.

I did want to get a dry erase board like I had talked about.  Unlike my friend Nancy who has a BASR (big ass sewing room),  I have a very small sewing room.  I'll call it my TTSR (teeny tiny sewing room)  So, my empty space is very limited.  I also found this on pinterest.com and loved the idea.  It's fabric on cork board.

 By searching online, I found a board on Amazon.com that I thought could serve both purposes.  The dry erase side is also magnetic.  And then there's the cork side.  I think that I can put on my thinking cap and figure out a way that I can make a fabric cover with pockets for this side.  If I ever finish with all that I have planned, I should have a cute and neatly organized TTSR.  So, I guess I should get off here and get busy.

So Far, So Good

Do you remember when I showed you this part of my sewing room and what a mess it was?  Well, I've been working on it a little at a time, and it's finally starting to take shape.  You can see some of my fabric shelves to the left of the buffet.

Here's what it looks like right now.  It still looks a little messy, but the stack of books and the books in the plastic container are ready to be put away.  To the left of the books is a stack of T-shirts ready to be put inside the buffet (I just need to clean out a space)

This, however, is the area that I'm most excited about.  I ordered these fabric bins from Walmart.com, since they are not available in the stores.  I ordered three sets (9 bins) to begin with.  They are all in use now, and I have ordered two more sets, which I had shipped to my local Walmart and will pick up tomorrow night.  I had started to roll my fabric before stuffing neatly putting it into the bins.  After seeing some baskets that others use, I just started flat-folding my fabrics like they were on the shelves and laying them into the bins.  Believe it or not, I was able to put more fabric in each bin.  The pile of fabric on the right side of the middle shelf are extra large pieces that I bought for backings.  I'm thinking that I may buy pants hangers to put them on and hang them in the closet in the sewing room.  I may have one or two old hangers just hanging around somewhere.  Memo to self:  look for those hangers.  While I was cleaning off the buffet top, I found some blocks that I had started for a quilt for Bubby a few years ago.  I didn't care for them and so never finished them.  I quickly tossed them into the trash.  After thinking about how these blocks were nearly done, I decided to take them back out, finish them, and put them together for a quilt for the Saddle Up.  I just hate throwing out anything that might be useful.

While putting the fabric into the bins, I pulled out some nice sized pieces that I haven't used in probably 10 years.  I was going to put them aside for Goodwill.  And then I found some good pieces that weren't folded and were just sort of thrown around.  Aha, said I, the granddaughters have been playing with my fabric again.  I've told you before that Krissy is a budding fashion designer.  Here's one of the outfits she made for Izzy when they were spending some time here.  What I decided to do is to put these fabrics into a special bag for them to use for their fashion design -- with the understanding that they are responsible for cleaning up their mess.  Hopefully, they will leave Grammy's fabric alone then.

I did want to get a dry erase board like I had talked about.  Unlike my friend Nancy who has a BASR (big ass sewing room),  I have a very small sewing room.  I'll call it my TTSR (teeny tiny sewing room)  So, my empty space is very limited.  I also found this on pinterest.com and loved the idea.  It's fabric on cork board.

 By searching online, I found a board on Amazon.com that I thought could serve both purposes.  The dry erase side is also magnetic.  And then there's the cork side.  I think that I can put on my thinking cap and figure out a way that I can make a fabric cover with pockets for this side.  If I ever finish with all that I have planned, I should have a cute and neatly organized TTSR.  So, I guess I should get off here and get busy.