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Melissa is still on the Injured Reserve list for FNSI and i told her that i would type up a post for her ... so ... prepare yourself for minimal punctuation, missing capital letters, slang, and sentences ending with prepositions...

i started by asking her exactly what it was that she was doing last night whilst Sven Thorson and i were slaving away on the OTR trees ... ahem ... after coming down from her high horse, she showed me the stack of presents that she wrapped with absolutely no help from me...

wait for it...

think these will fit in Santa's sleigh?!?
aren't those just the cutest things?!? she wrapped each present that she and i are giving this year to resemble Santa's middle ... the pictures don't do them justice ... and you can't see the big blue tote that is filled with smaller presents ... lots of them ... i humbly bow to her present-wrapping prowess ... i am a present-wrapping slacker ... i used to love to wrap gifts in red foil paper with huge white satin bows and hand-made ornaments adorning them ... but then crankiness set in and now people are lucky if i remember to take off the price tag before i shove whatever the gift is back into the store's bag and throw it at them ... after all, it's the thought that counts, innit?!?

she also worked on some scrapbook pages, but i am not allowed to see them cuz they are surprises for my plentieth birthday ... sheesh

well ... i guess that's all i have to say about that
xoxo,
dianne
i dunno ... do you think she will ever ask me to post for her again?!?

FNSI Injury Report...

Yet again FNSI has taken a turn for the bloody for me. This time it was in the form of a severe, vicious, malicious, heinous, cruel paper cut.

I decided to get to work on the ONE thing mom asked for for her birthday. A scrapbook. Scrapbooking sounded harmless enough and I was ready to get my butt in gear. Just after finishing the first page the curse of FNSI struck me yet again with a very deep blood-pouring paper cut on my left ring finger.

Tombstone's Doc Holiday played by LuLu!!!
I was actually watching the very bloody scene when Morgan dies when the injury occurred.

I bandaged myself up and got back to work. After all, it was just a flesh wound. All in all, I got 9 pages done and in her book. Just 2 more and I am good to go.

On a lighter note I would like to relate a nice little story that happened today. Mom and I were out shopping. We were paying for our stuff when an Eagles Christmas song came on the speakers.

Hey mom - it's the Eagles!

No, it's not.

Yes, it is. It's Don singing. Ya know - the drummer.

How do you know this stuff?!? You're just weird.

It's All Fun And Games...

Until Someone Gets Poked.

For FNSI I decided to work on a couple of things (at least that was the plan).

I worked on my Northern Lights BOM blocks for this month.

Then tragedy struck. On the very last seam the now bloody U-Turn pin jabbed into my bird finger and dangled there as I writhed in severe pain.

After the blood stopped gooshing out, I came to the conclusion that what I wanted to work on was not a good idea.

I was going to put the naming square on A Chip Off the Old Bark. That's right!!! It's quilted and bound!!! I figured that my finger had enough of sharp pointy objects for the day.

I love the quilting. Thank you, Liz!!! You did a great job!!!

From Fall to Winter in One Night!!!

For FNSI I wanted to work on something I already had started.

I really like how bright they are and am so happy they are put together. Thank you mom for figuring out the block!!!

Since I finished the Northern Lights blocks for the BOM I had to choose something else to work on.

I decided to keep working on my Wintergraphix quilt I started last weekend. It has a lot of paper piecing and it's taking a while.

It's still in pieces but they are starting to take shape.

Mom and I listened to the Eagles first. I had to pick their first greatest hits CD because mom like the songs she knows and can sing along. Then we listened to James Taylor's greatest hits. When that CD finished it was just in time for Monk to come on. We watched one episode together and then my poor little legs were tired from standing and trimming and pressing, so I stopped to watch more TV, Nikita and Supernatural, and work on a puzzle I started a while back.

Disorder and Confusion Everywhere!!!

A few months ago Mom and I purchased the Ghastlies. I got mine in white and orange. I didn't know what I was going to do, but I had a good feeling about it.

I have never designed my own quilt before, feeling that I didn't have the skills and, most importantly, the patience to get all the pieces to fit together. I put off drafting a pattern until I had all the fabric. So after I got them, I sat down and spent an entire night graphing out blocks for each of the characters I wanted to have in my quilt. I wasn't very confident about them, so I put them away for another day.

I got out the plans and the fabric a couple days ago and decided to try out my pattern. I got through the fifth block and realized I didn't have enough of the orange cats to finish the other blocks. So I had to order more and wait for the fabric. It arrived on Thursday to my delight.

For FNSI I did the last three blocks that I needed to finish to put my quilt together. As I pieced my blocks, I watched Monk (and I thought I had a lot of phobias).

Here they are all together.

Just to let everyone know, there will be sashing in between the blocks, so they won't be right next to each other. I think for not having any real plan to start with, they turned out pretty good. I am a little more confident in designing my own quilts.

I'm Late! I'm Late! For A Very Important Date!!!

In the aftermath of the Broncos win last night, I forgot to post my FNSI. So, here it is. Better late than never.

I worked on the pineapple blocks that mom has been bugging me to finish. I have them pretty far along and I am excited about working on them again. I think the excitement this time has to do with everything being pretty much already cut.

In the Meadow...

...We can build a snowman (or a family in my case)

For this month's FNSI I decided to work on the Winter Wonderland project that I started back when rocks were soft and mist was in the air.

I finished this block and traced out another block last night.

Help! I Need Somebody! HELP!!!

Mom recently referred to the incentive that she bought me. Here is the result...

Now I need the advice of the blog world. Are the paper pieced blocks arranged in a best way possible? If you think that some of the blocks would look better elsewhere please let me know.

Hide and Seek!!!

Last night was FNSI. So I settled in and thought about what (of my many projects that have been started) I should work on.

Mom has been on me about finishing my candy cane quilt that hasn't gotten finished yet. We got some new fabrics this week and she has been thinking of how to use them. She realized that the candy cane fabric from a Very Fairy Christmas looked a lot like the candy cane that I embroidered last year. So I dragged out my stitching and blocks that are finished. It was a perfect match.

So I (after many "work on them! work on them!" from mom) decided to work on my last three paper pieced blocks and see how far I could get.

I got my stuff ready, then I looked around for the back up fabric that I have for when (yes, when because I know that I will) I mess up. I couldn't find it any where. I spent about twenty minutes tearing up my side of the sewing room and trying to get it back together again. I gave up looking and hoped for the best.

The two blocks I got done and two of my embroidered blocks on the perfect fabric for sashing.

I was also given my first pair of stork scissors by my mom yesterday, and I have to show them off. I don't have much fondness for birds, and the feeling is mutual. They are the ones that started the feud. I have always wanted a pair of stork scissors for myself, but I couldn't find any that I liked. These are perfect.

This is the stitching bag I got from Ant Nicci and my NEW black and white stork scissors.

I collect pins and decided this is the perfect place to put some of them. The pin with my name has been in a button tin for as long as I can remember. 2 are from my recent trip to Florida. 4 of them are from the shop hop that mom and I try to go to every year. (You'll never guess which little pal might join us this year - if we go.)

Let Your Hair Down!!!

I was so excited for this FNSI, since I missed last one.

I started out my night by trying to catch up on my BOM's and the extra blocks that I am making along with them.

After I got all but one of the blocks done I got to work on a project for my LuLu. Mom and I bought her a big girl nap mat with Rapunzel, from Tangled, on it. The pillow isn't very big so I decided to make her a Rapunzel pillow case for an extra pillow.

As so often happens one turned into two!!!

Where I Have Been!!!

It has been a while since I last posted. (Or that is what mom tells me.)

(Me and the conductor of the Hogwarts Express)

I have been pretty busy this month. I went on my first vacation in 7 years. I accompanied my sister's family on their trip to Orlando, Florida. We did the usual tourist stuff, Disney World (all 4 major parks), Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, and Sea World.

The first night there we attended the Arabian Nights dinner show. It was a lot of fun and very interactive. Gumdrop loved it since she is very into horses.

LuLu missed getting her picture with her favorite Disney movie character, Mulan, by 2 seconds at Epcot. She did get to wave and say, "Hi." I really enjoyed the topiary characters. But my favorite part of Epcot had to be seeing Off Kilter sing "The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond." I love this song and seemed to be the only one in the crowd who knew it. The rest of them must not have read Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon because Rodger sings at the Scottish/Irish festival.

We did the VIP tour of Sea World and got to feed Sting Rays, Dolphins, and Sea Lions. We got to see the Dolphin show, the Sea Lion pirate show, and the whale show, Believe. My sister and Gumdrop went on Atlantis with me and got pretty wet. We ate at the Luau dinner that they have at Sea World and it was a lot of fun, even though with my food allergies I couldn't eat much. We all got to feed Dolphins and Sea Lions. LuLu loved the Dolphins.

While Nojo was taking the picture of LuLu feeding the Dolphins he failed to see that she had just stolen his biggest fish. She is too cute for him to be mad for very long. What a great big brother.

Islands of Adventure has the Harry Potter village of Hogsmeade and Hogwarts Castle. This is where I had the best time. I love Harry Potter and it was the major reason why I went on the trip. I went on all the rides there and have the best picture of all the accumulated photos taken on our journey. I got to drink butter beer and pumpkin juice. I was only able to bring mom back a pumpkin juice but she was happy with that. The ride in the castle was so much fun. If you love Harry Potter and want to feel like you're part of the story this is the ride for you.

(This is my favorite picture. The guy at the photo desk couldn't stop laughing at the look on my face. Yes, I am afraid of spiders!)

The last thing we did was go to Cocoa Beach, which I was also excited to visit since it is where "I Dream of Jeannie" takes place. I absolutely love that show. You can ask mom. I drive her nuts with it.

Bloom Where You're Planted!!!

Last night was FNSI and of course I participated. But before I get into all that fun stuff, I hope everyone had a very green St. Patty's Day. I know I did (I spent the whole day watching and singing Celtic Thunder Heritage)!!!

So what did I get accomplished? Well...

I decided to use the night to catch up on my BOM's. I had five blocks to finish. I managed to finish before midnight.

This is the neutral block that needed to be done by April 9. Also pictured is the super-duper coffee fabric that I bought to go with my coffee quilt. It has officially been named "Clouds In My Coffee."

The first is my favorite block so far. The last two are my least favorite blocks so far.

These are the Lakehouse blocks for February and March that I am making along with the neutral blocks.

These are the previous months of Lakehouse blocks.

In Short...

no pun intended on my part (I know that I am short)

This FNSI I worked on a couple of things. I traced out the snowflake angel that mom is going to embroider for me. That was number one.

The second thing I worked on is a secret project for LuLu's birthday in April. I can't put a full photo up, but here is a sneak peek at the backing.

SHHHHH!!! Don't tell LuLu!!!

The third thing I worked on was the outline of my candy cane letter T.

I have had a pretty busy past few days and have not felt very good. I did do my Best-Auntia-In-The-World duty and watched my nephew, NoJo, play basketball. I knew he had King Louie arms for a reason. He won 38-4. GO NOJO!!! Then I hung out with my sister, The Glamazon, and two of her friends in a Girls' Day Out.

So in short (no pun intended) I am tired and going to turn in early.

Lovely!!!

My FNSI started off with a wee bit of shopping. Mom and I went to JAF and bought her background fabric for the new BOM (Hot Flashes) at The Quilters Studio. Then we went to Hobby Lobby to get the knitting needles that I needed.

When I was about 9 or 10 years old, my mom tried to teach me how to knit. I started out with a skein of red cotton yarn and a pair of size 8 knitting needles. I would knit and knit and knit. And after I went to bed, she would try to fix the mess I'd made. I lost interest (if I ever had any) and she gave up on me ever becoming a domestic goddess.

Last month I bought a book to learn how to knit. I started a knitting project (that I bought the needles for). I am not very good at all and, after failing four times to get the first row, I moved on to a different project.

I pressed the panda and bamboo batik fabrics for a quilt that I have had planned for a while. But then I remembered that the fabrics hadn't been prewashed, so I decided to work on something else.

I ended the night working on an afghan that I started a couple of years ago for Mom. I have made one for myself. Mom loved it and wanted one, too. I worked on it and listened to "A Breath of Snow and Ashes" till I was too tired to keep my eyes open.

Lovely!!!

Mom says that I sound just like the little old ladies in "Saving Grace" when I talk about how lovely things are.

Diana - I love Grace. I really, really love her ...
Quentin - Right. Where do I find her?
Diana - In a lovely, lovely house. I love her.
Quentin - And how do I find the lovely, lovely house?
Diana - Up the lovely, lovely hill

from Saving Grace