Getting Ready

I am so excited.  On Friday, I will be going to a quilt retreat.  It is a mini-retreat through my quilt guild.  Every year a bunch of our fellow guild members go up to Zepher Cove for a full week of quilting happiness.
Not all of us are able to afford that--either in money or in time away from work.  So, Natalie got the idea to have this little retreat.  We are going to Auburn to the Mercy Retreat Center--run by the Sister's of Mercy.
From Friday at 2pm until Sunday at noon, we will be in quilting heaven.

I am bringing my red/blue stars, my Linda Ballard quilt, a purse project and a pink and brown quilt.  I am thinking about changing my mind and taking one of the Saturday Square quilts.  This is more than I need to bring.  There are some projects planned to teach us techniques, but I am not sure I care to join in with those.  One big surprise is for my friend Jill.  Just had a thought.  I don't know if Jill reads this, so the surprise will have to wait.  I'll take a picture......

New book I am going to start is a John Grisham--The Litigators

Breakfast for the King

A rare day--I am home and my husband is home.  So what do I do???  I make the King of the house breakfast!  I remembered I had this package of blueberry scones.  Now I can make up a great breakfast in a short amount of time and still make it special.  I received the mix as a gift from a friend.  It is made by the Sticky Fingers Bakery.  The directions call for 3/4 cup of water, but I usually put milk in place of the water.  I also had a handful of blueberries in the refrigerator, so I threw them in.  I sprinkled the tops with raw sugar crystals.  Yummmm.

I was a bit disappointed when the tops didn't brown as much, but the taste is wonderful.  I surely will buy another mix when I find our where Irene bought them.  The best news is that my lovely husband loved his breakfast.

My darling daughter is thinking of moving out.  She has found a roommate, now to just find just the right place.  When that happens, I will cook all the meals and the occasional breakfast made by my own little hands will be commonplace again.

Today is Monday.  My guild meeting is on Thursday.  As of this morning, I had no idea what I was going to do for the block of the month.  I have three plans already to go, but we don't have the attendance in June and July that we have the other months and I wanted to wait with what I have been putting together.  As I was eating my breakfast, munching on my scones, I looked up and saw a wall hanging I still have up and should have taken down.  It will be perfect!  So, I will be working on that until I go to pick up the darling daughter from work. 

Yesterday afternoon I went to dinner at Tres Hermanas in downtown Sacramento with my darling daughter, Anna and Adrianna.  It is on 22nd and K Street.  It was delicious Mexican food.   We ordered a pitcher of margatitas.  Yummmm.  The occasion was to celebrate the darling daughter turning 25 years old yesterday.  She went to see the movie, Mirror-Mirror.  Afterward, we walked down to the next block to Rick's Dessert Diner.  That was the most scrumptious place.  Chocolate Fudge cake, Lemon pies, fruit basket cakes with raspberries, blue berries.  One woman came to buy for a whooping $41.00--a whole cake.  Check them out at www.ricksdessertdiner.com or go buy and have a giant piece of cake--Rick's is at 2322 K Street in Sacramento.  They are getting rich off of cake!!!!

Have a great day!

 

 The hand above belongs to my darling daughter.  My friend, Leah, wanted to get a pedicure before she went to Oregon to see her mother-in-law.  How could I refuse her???  

The toes are mine. 
I think I would go back to red the next time.

We brought the darling daughter with us.  She had to get a manicure because she absolutely hates

it when someone touches her feet.  How could that be???

I LOVE having someone massage my feet.  I am so lucky that my husband will do this for me.

The darling daughter got the French manicure, only she has red tips instead of the usual white.

Tomorrow there is a birthday party for Mila.  She is the niece of Adrianna who lives next door.

Mila is turning seven on Tuesday.  I heard Adrianna tell Mila that you only get one birthday--as in one party. Not true here.  

We are making a chocolate cake for her on Tuesday.  The darling daughter is making a bracelet for Mila.

I made her a little purse.  The piece is quilted.  that takes all the time.

Mila can use it to keep her things together--a rock she found, her bracelets.....

Other than that, I have spent the last three days cleaning up after my husband took the cottage cheese ceiling stuff down and repainted everything.  It is very white.  The big thing for him was my magazines.  There were a lot.  He cannot understand why I want to keep every Victoria magazine I have.  I told him that our house would look like those in the magazine if he were dead.  I cannot bear to give up my Mary Engelbriet magazines either.  I have cleaned out a lot of stuff including the magazines.  I have three big boxes of stuff for the next charity who calls--if they call before the 5th of July.  The Veteran people will be by on the 5th.  They send out a card with dates. 

I know this will be shocking, but my husband said to me, "you should make smaller quilts so they are easier to store."  Who is this man I am living with????  I mostly make throw size quilts--not real big at all.  And I give most of my quilts away.  I can't believe I sleep with this virtual stranger.  He does not understand my obsession at all.  No wonder women need girlfriends.  Men are.....men!

My son just came over and whispered to me, "Why is the television so loud?"  It is because my lovely husband is deaf.  It is the only explanation I can come up with to explain why he only hears a few words I utter. 

Have a lovely weekend all.  Tomorrow my daughter will turn 25 years old.  She is looking at apartments, making plans to move out.  I am getting older by the day........

Things

Hello out there.

1.  There is a birthday almost every week until September.  Sarah turned 18 May 28th.  William is June 1 and his mama, Laura, is June 7th.  The in-laws have been married 51 years June 7th.  Juliana turns 12 today.  The darling daughter will be 25 next Saturday.  My mother-in-law has a birthday on the 28th.  My sis is July 14, Jim is the 22, Kim is the 23rd, Richard is the 27th--all in July.  My father-in-law turns 75 this year.  There is a big party planned for him.  Olivia is August 6 and her dad is August 3--or it is the other way around.  Janice is the 21st.  Mine is the 30th of August and my brother-in-law is September 4 or 9--again, I forget.

2.  We finished putting the living room back together and I am cleaning my bedroom.  It has really confused me that we had all these books in the bookcase.  They came out and I have two boxes full waiting for Katie from the Wind Youth Services to call.  Somehow we can't seem to get them all back in.  I thought there would be more room.  Turns out my husband was sneaky and added in some books he got from a friend who died last year.

3.  Wednesday I spent part of the day at my friend's house with every single person from my circle of friends.  We had a lovely lunch, sewed, appliqued and laughed.  Just like a Saturday get-together.  Four of us went on to our Thimbleberries group and had a great time.  It was a quick meeting.  Maybe the heat made some of them stay home.  Nicole, one of our fearless leaders (the others being Pam and Debbie) was at quilt camp.  Debbie is still doing her one year thing for work and will be back in August or September.  I really miss her at our meetings.  Her quilts are right up my alley.......  I didn't buy one single thing!

4.  Thursday, we played cards with my mother-in-law.  We play Hand and Foot.  My team lost--as usual.

5.  Reading:  A Soldier's Wife by Margaret Leroy --also called The Collaborator
                    The Girl in the Blue Beret by Bobbie Ann Mason
                    Georgia's Kitchen by Jenny Nelson
                    Threadbare Heart by Jennie Nash
                    Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Michaelsen

I loved A Soldier's Wife--but I love novels about World War II and the Channel Islands.  Touching Spirit Bear is written for teenagers, but the message is timeless and it is such a wonderful book.  I even have a recommendation for my niece--Seeing Cinderella by Jenny Lundquist.

6.  The next cookbook I want to buy is Celebrating the Pleasures of Cooking by Chuck Williams of William-Sonoma.

7.  I am going to start a new project:  Threads, Threads Everywhere.  It is an embroidery project.

8.  Congratulations to Erik.  He graduated from the University of California, Davis today.  A party is going on next door as I type.

9.  Movie I loved:  Keeping Mum with Kristen Scott Thomas and Maggie Smith.

I leave you with this:
            Friends, books and a cheerful heart are the most choice companions we have here.
                                                                 --William Mather

Last Day

It was the last day of school today.  It so feels like a Friday.  What was the thought process behind this Monday business.  I am sure it all has to do with minutes.  Minutes rule our lives. 

My friend, Tricia, took me out to lunch at Applebees.  We were supposed to meet at 12:45pm.  At 12:45pm I was driving down Dewey Drive, miles away from Applebees.  Thank goodness that Tricia wasn't there either.  Her first words were how sorry she was so late, but I was chiming in on how late I was. 

Not much work getting done here tonight.

Graduation

The eighth graders at my school graduated today.  The multi-purpose room was packed.  Standing room only.  It was truly unbelieveable.  MY son came to this school and he had a good parent year.  Lots of parents joined the PTC (parent-teacher-club) and you regurally saw moms hanging about.  Hasn't been this way in years.  This year seemed no different.  No parents hanging about.  Very small PTC.  Today the parents came out of the woodwork.  Moms, dads, grandparents--like it was high school or college.  Flowers, balloons and cameras flashing all over.  Just amazing.

"We are always the same age inside."
            --Gertrude Stein

Is she a witch???

Something funny happened this morning at work.  I work at a middle school.  Middle school students like to go to the bathroom.  It gets them out of the classroom, a place to meet their friends and reapply their make-up.  So, teachers like to use really odd objects as the bathroom pass.  One teacher uses a broom.  maybe she thinks the students will sweep their way to the restroom.  Could be helpful to our custodian.....

This morning, a student desparately had to use the bathroom at the very beginning of school.  Because there are BIG penalities for being late to class, this enterprising young woman went to class, put her stuff down and grabbed the "pass".  So the vice principal sees her and asks the student if she came to school on the broom.  Then the vice principal asks her, "could I borrow it to get home tonight?"  VERY FUNNY, or is she really a witch??????