Nappy

I need total darkness to sleep well and also enjoy a day time nap so I've purchased more than my fair share of eye mask thingies.  Every one has had some flaw but I finally found the perfect one!  It totally blocks out light (it has a great little padded part under the eyes) and it is comfortable. It is a suede-ish material so I call it my "blue suede snooze". Props to Bed, Bath and Beyond for helping me sleep a little better. 

She's thrifty

I freely admit that I am a cheapskate.  I have a real aversion to paying full price for stuff.  If something, anything, is over $20, my brain sees it as expensive.  Except with little things and/or groceries.  Then I want everything to be under $2.  Obviously, not everything is under 2 or 20 dollars but in my head, that's the threshold for how much I want to part with.  Of course, I am often forced to go over that threshold but I'm not happy about it!

So, I went to Old Navy the other day & got 2 skirts (one is even corduroy, my love for which is deep & possibly unhealthy) for under $10.  TOTAL. 

This is what my heaven would be: constantly finding things I want for super cheap that other fools paid full price for.  (Plus all the pizza & ice cream I could eat, of course.)   My husband is well aware how lucky he is that he married such a thrifty gal.

Sewing

Who'd a thunk I'd ever be excited about thread?  But it's so pretty!  

It is going to look so cool if I ever start actually working on my quilting projects!  I have one all cut in pieces but not sewn.  Another, I've bought fabric for but haven't started cutting.  The third is all still in my head.  I'm really trying not to put pressure on myself since that takes all the fun out of it... but I really need to get started!  I'm pretty sure the problem is that I don't want to start free motion quilting & then fail at it.  I occasionally don't do things purely because I'm not good at it or don't think I will be & I don't want to fail.  

I'm fairly certain that my desire to see these projects through will win out over the fear of failure.  Besides, if I do fail, so what?  I know I can hand quilt so I can just do that. Plus, I get to give these quilts away to people I love, which is awesome! 

Cat

Although she really isn't one any longer, I will probably always call Samoa a kitten (I called her predecessor "baby kitty" for 16 years).  Her first birthday is Monday.  I can't believe she's a full grown cat already.  I remember picking her up & stopping on the way home at Petco to get her a collar with a bell.  She was so tiny, we wanted to be able to find her, I guess.  That's not a problem, though.  She doesn't hide & is so terrible at stalking (she seems to think that simply crouching makes her invisible) so I took the collar off yesterday (it was getting a tad small anyway).  So, my girl is all grown up & doesn't need her bell anymore.  Here she is right after we brought her home & put the collar on.

I love the pink with skull-and-crossbones collar but I think Sammy is enjoying the unobstructed neck scratches even more.

Sunday

Just got back from taking the pups to the dog park, which we try to do at least once a weekend.  Fortunately, the pond has thawed & Kaycee was able to get her swim fix.  Unfortunately, that means we have a damp & dirty dog.  But, she's happy & both dogs are now asleep on their beds.  Sleepy pups are so cute!  Here's me with Bella & Kaycee at the park.

And after...

I woke Bella up taking the picture.  She was snoring seconds before this.  She's a cutie but man, can she snore!

Back to it

I finally started work on my next quilt project.  It is actually two quilts, one for each of my cousin's two super sweet kids.  Sarah likes horses & her favorite color is blue.  Finding fabric for hers was a cinch, and I even steered clear of stereotypically "girly" flowery prints. Feminine, maybe, but only one could really be called floral.

I'm really in love with these patterns & excited to see how it all comes together.  I just hope Sarah likes them as much as I do.  

Isaac likes Star Wars, the Clone Wars cartoon series.  Yeah... nothing at the fabric stores.  So, I found a twin sheet set & am going to cut that up.  Isaac's favorite color is also blue so I want to find different fabrics (so its not all matchy with his sister's), in the blue family, that have a touch more masculine theme.  This, I've found, is not that easy.  

I don't want just solid colors but I also don't want cutesy theme fabric with tractors or cowboys or robots (those are easy to find, incidentally) just cool, basic theme-free patterns.  This is my quest and I shall succeed (hopefully without too much plaid)!

Brilliant!

For some reason, I wanted beanie-weenie today, yet I had none of the ingredients.  This prompted me to wonder if there's a restaurant where I can get beanie-weenie.  Then, I thought I could open a restaurant with all kinds of comfort food and stuff you had when you were a kid & crave sometimes.  But my restaurant wouldn't be all hoity-toity & try to make a fancy version of beanie weenie. I wouldn't be putting weird ingredients in it and making you feel uncool because you've never heard of the South American tribe who's women have grown the beans for 12 generations in soil rich with diamonds that blah blah blah.  Nope.  We'd just open a can of beans, cut up the dogs & heat it up.  And it would be delicious.

Yeah, so, I made breaded flounder & steamed veggies for dinner.  Tasty... but I still want beanie weenie.

And here's some non sequitur cuteness: