Quilters have their own language....

I don't consider myself bilingual, but on second thought I just might be fluent in another language. This language might sound completely weird & alien to most folks, but not to quilters...because it's the language of quilting!

These are just a few fun terms we use to describe our obsession....

•FART = Fabric Acquisition Road Trip
•FQ = Fat Quarter
•HST = Half-Square Triangle
•LAQ= Long Arm Quilter
•LQS = Local Quilt Shop
•PIGS = Projects in Grocery Sacks
•SABLE = Stash Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy
•SEX = Stash Enhancing eXperience (or eXcursion)
•STASH = Special Treasures All Secretly Hidden
•TGIF = Thank God It's Finished!
•TOT = Tone-on-Tone
•UFO = UnFinshed Object
•WHIMM = Works Hidden In My Mind
•WIP = Work In Progress
•WISP = Work In Slow Progress
•WOF = Width of Fabric
•WOMBAT = Waste of Money, Batting, and Time
•WOW = White On White

Here's is one of my personal favs.... It started as a WHIMM, inspired by this picture of a quilt I saw on a calendar...

After much thought, and many hours creating my own pattern via EQ (Electric Quilt ~ my quilt design software program.) the idea progressed to a real WIP,
and then this...

But alas, it is currently a UFO. It's safely stored in a large box - all the fabric I collected on a FART & SEX trip (did I really say that!?) & the designs I drew up neatly stacked together...waiting for me to change it from a WISP to a TGIF... but I sincerely hope is never turns into a WOMBAT!

A Day of Watery Fun

Today we decided to do something......different!!

We haven't done any traveling this summer, so we needed a break and wanted to create a memory. After much discussion, we decided to go to the Georgia Aquarium! Despite a VERY late start, and a long, hot, wait to get in (almost 2 hours!), I have to say - it was wonderful! The variety of water creatures, each one uniquely suited for it's environment, is amazing. God's creativity is endless - He made the Beluga whales smile, and have the ability to bend their neck...the only whale in the world with this ability. He made the tropical fish with such bright beautiful colors, and the otters with fun personalities. And the WHALE SHARKS! WOW is not a big enough word to describe these massive, beautiful giants. I could sit & watch them swim by all day long & never get tired of it. The big tank at the GA Aquarium was so cooooool! The big ol' groupers, giant, graceful manta ray, so many various sharks, and those 4 giant whale sharks all share a tank the size of a football field. WOW!

Here's a few pictures from our day....

Before and After

I confess. I let things go. I mean REALLY go, as in almost beyond help and way too close to the point of no return. I've been meaning to do something about it for the last 6 months, but other daily demands just seemed to take priority. And to be honest - I procrastinated....a lot! So it just got worse, and worse and worse.

But NOT ANYMORE!!

This weekend I decided to do something about it.

I turned over a new leaf.

I did it....

I cleaned my sewing room!

I don't actually sew in my 'sewing room'....it's actually my laundry room. (My sewing machine/cabinet is just outside this room, in the kitchen.) The washer/dryer/freezer are on the far right side of the room, and all my sewing stuff - fabric, books, patterns, ironing board, and a bzillion miscellaneous crafting/sewing supplies are stored on various shelves on the left side of the room. And I have various UFOs ~ UnFinished Objects, and PIGS ~ Projects In Grocery Sacks stored in boxes, too. These boxes vary from shoebox sized, to copy paper sized.

So Saturday I started clearing out, cleaning, tossing out and organizing. I spent most of the day in there & still didn't finish. I did more today and feel like I'm almost done, but still need a bit more organizing. I have a small filing cabinet that I want to put underneath my cutting table - which will hold/organize a lot of my purchased patterns, as well as my own drafts, notes & patterns. But for the most part - it's finally respectable and reasonably presentable,... and bloggable.

So I submit for your contemplation and evaluation.... BEFORE
(Don't hate me. I know it's awful.)




And AFTER..... (*happy sigh*)



The funniest part of the whole thing - See that box on top the wooden cabinet... it's full of Christmas gifts! And since both birthdays have passed...I guess they'll be Christmas presents again!
SHHHHH ~ don't tell the boys where their gifts are hidden!

Pull My Finger

Ian says.....

"Pull My Finger!"





This is why you should NEVER pull Ian's finger!
He's a bit warped.

A Busy Birthday

Cole turned 11! Wahoo!

We celebrated all weekend....starting Saturday, July 4th - and ending today, his 'real' birthday, July 6th.

We started out with a 'Find the Clue to Find Your Presents' game. He had 11 rhyming clues that led him from place to place to place - ALL over the place! Some of the clues were pretty simple, others were quite perplexing for Cole.
But it was a lot of fun, and in the end - after almost an hour long search for clues - he solved the final clue and found his presents.









It was only appropriate to have a few fireworks on the 4th of July...Thank you, Bea!... and this funny little picture had a visitor in it. Can you spot "Tinkerbell" enjoying an up close view!

Today - we celebrated Cole's actual birthday. We started out at Monkey Joe's, but that didn't last very long since they now have an age limit & Ian wasn't allowed to join in. So we left for lunch at Pizza Hut - Cole's favorite, and went for 'plan B'... Putt-Putt. But we ran into another problem...Putt-Putt is closed on Mondays.
Not good! So then we opted for emergency 'plan C'! Bowling!! Wahoo - we had a delightful time bowling. My first 4 frames were strike, strike, spare, and strike. That will never happen again!!! Especially after Cole, Ian and Alex put 'monkey dust' on my ball. My game went kaput after that! In the end, I won the first game, and Cole won the 2nd game. So we had a wonderful time - especially the birthday boy.



Happy Birthday Cole! You've been a blessing to our family for 11 full years now. We love you, Refried!! You rock!

Summer Yard Critters

Bunnies come up in Ma & Pops' yard every evening to eat the yummy clover. These bunnies come in all sizes - from wee little bunnies fresh from the nest, to big ol' 'wompus' bunnies that are HUGE. They all are share the yard with Pops' birds and squirrels.











This delightful little mockingbird posed for me as I was taking pictures of Cole playing in the mud. It landed nearby, paused long enough for Cole point it out, and I turned around & took it's picture. It has a fat, juicy cricket in it's beak - so it must have a nest full of hungry babies nearby. We had a nest of 'mockers' outside our bedroom window. You would think they would be rude, noisy neighbors, but I'm happy to say they were wonderful neighbors. There's nothing sweeter to wake up to in the morning than a mockingbird's song.

Good Clean Fun....

There's just something about boys, water, and dirt. They all go together so well. They are drawn to each other - like a magnetic attraction. They can't resist it.

So it begins...






It gets between your fingers & toes and feels gushy. Then you start splashing...














But having just your hands & feet muddy isn't enough....
It takes a lot of effort to get this dirty!
You have to do it right!



Nothing better than a boy and a mud puddle on a hot July afternoon. And the best part ~ he enjoyed the bath afterwards just as much!

24 years ago

24 years ago our life changed.

We said 'I do'...and we meant it.

We still love, honor and cherish one another,

...in sickness and in health,

...in good times and in bad times,

...for richer and for poorer,

...as long as we both shall live.

Things have changed - some for the better, some not so much.

Through it all we always know this truth ~ we are incredibly blessed. We have each other, and God. What more could we ask for?

"You're My Inspiration."

Squirrel World ~ the Final Chapter

I've finally been able to get pictures of the baby squirrels at Blake's parent's house. They are pretty much full grown and on their own now. They come and go as they please - no more cages, they make their own nest, they forage & have learned what's good to eat. And they have had encounters with the local wild squirrels which are rather territorial, and most importantly - have learned to beware hawks & other predators. But they are so use to the Back Porch Buffet available 24/7 at Ma & Pops' they have stayed close by. Considering the free & easy peanuts and sunflower seeds - theses babies know which side their bread is buttered on ~ OR should that be which pocket the peanut is in! Life is good, and young squirrels can live large at the Back Porch Buffet.

It will be interesting to see how long this behavior lasts. Will the wildness take over or will they aways hang around and possibly teach future generations about the Back Porch buffet? Only time will tell.

My Solution

School is ending next week. (WOW, the year has really gone by fast!) This is Cole's last year in elementary school, so I wanted to give a little something to his teachers...but with finances being what they are, I basically had to come up with something for nothing. My solution - and I think it's a grand idea, if I do say so myself! - is quilted bookmarks. I have plenty of fabric, plenty of batting scraps, and this weekend provided plenty of time. I just layed them out, freemotion quilted them, and then cut them apart. The hardest part was the wee-tiny hole for the ribbons. So I ended up making a boo-coo load of of bookmarks...enough for Cole's teachers - including his PE teacher who is retiring & intends to stay home & quilt to her heart's content, and one of his Sunday School teachers who is retiring from teaching school after 31 years, as well as some for my co-worker's birthdays.




They were easy and fun, but also creative and useful. USEFUL is a key thing, in my opinion when giving teachers gifts. (How many #1 teacher mugs to they really need??????) So I always try to think 'outside the box' and give them something useful. In years past, I've given them packs of lightbulbs, which my boys think is just plain weird, but when I attach the cute little poem Blake wrote about 'Thank you for making me brighter, and A+ = a 100,etc, etc, therefore these 100watt bulbs are for you' it all makes sense. =) BUT then it became unfashionable to use regular 100 watt bulbs...we're suppose to uses those compact florescent thingies - which are not 100 watts. So that messed that up.

Anyway.... Bookmarks were the solution....and might be the answer to Christmas this year, too!

Chattahoochee Nature Center

Just a few more pictures from the nature center. We had a lovely day there. The weather was pleasant, the butterfly garden and hiking trails were great, and most of all...the boys were civilized! What more could a mom ask for for Mother's Day!

The Chattahoochee's natural color isn't this pretty...but a little Photoshop made it look like a artist's fantasy pond.

A pair of Canadian geese....see the baby trying to hide.

A Picklehead.

Thistle blossom

Striking colors of the purple iris among the red roses.

Bald Eagle


The reason for my Happy Mother's Day.

I am not Roadkill!

For Mother's Day I told my guys I wanted a pleasant family day together at the Chattahoochee Nature Center. We had free tickets, thanks to Blake doing some volunteer surveying there...so it was right in our price range! Wahoo!

Among the animal exhibits was this beaver. He was so funny...just laying there snoozing the day away. Every now & then he would twitch & stretch. Then he sat up & swayed...he was really sleepy.
<

Then he yawned & stretched out on his back - just like Riley likes to stretch out!....but then he looked exactly like roadkill!


But I'm happy to say he's a happy, contented little beaver, still enjoying his little pond at the CNC.

Honoring the Past

Last Sunday we went to New Hope Church Cemetery in Villa Rica for a Confederate Memorial. Among the folks being honored there was Blake's 4xGreat-Grandfather, Dempsey Jordan - a veteran of the Civil War. Uncle Sonny... who's real name is Marion Dempsey Jordan was with us. It was really special to see him stand near his name-sake's grave & have the rifle man answer the roll call 'Here in spirit, sir' as he fired the musket. We had 4 generations standing there in honor of Dempsey Jordan...Sonny, Ma, Blake, and the youngest generation - Ian, Cole and Alex.




Here's Pam & Alex in their full 1860's era dress. Ladies didn't normally carry rifles, but we know Pam is just a bit rebellious. *G*



I hope to teach my boys to honor their ancestors, their Southern Heritage (Georgia and Florida) and most of all, always be proud Americans.
We are one nation, under God....