things I want to do...

as you may or may not have heard... the man who co-authored "100 things to do before you die" passed away at age 47 this past week (and just so you know, he had done about half of the things on the list). I figured I could post a couple things that I haven't done yet, in no particular order, that I want to do (certainly not 100 though). some things are "moment" items, meaning that it takes one occurance and it is done where as some are "gradual" items, meaning that it will take a little while to get to an ultimate goal. I figure having a good mix of both is healthy. :)

[oh, and for those of you following along at home, I'm feeling much better today thank you, but am still not totally back in action yet]

1. quilt a quilt myself using a longarm machine (whether or not I own said machine, lol)
2. have a child
3. enter a recipe in the pillsbury bake-off
4. enter a recipe in the sutter home build a better burger contest
5. visit australia
6. decorate a cake all fancy-like with fondant and gum paste (which I only know about because I love to watch 'ace of cakes' on the food network)
7. visit hawaii
8. paint a picture of a shoreline (river, lake, pond... whatever)
9. live in maine
10. learn how to knit (like, for real... none of this "kind of" crap I pretend to do now)
11. learn how to crochet
12. drive a motorcycle, not just ride on one
13. grow a successful vegetable garden
14. grow a successful flower garden
15. hand piece and hand quilt a wallhanging... because I think that's more realistic (I did already start something... let's see if it gets finished)
16. be debt free
17. go to a boston celtics game
18. complete a family tree (perhaps in quilt form, but I'm not holding myself to that)
19. weigh 130 pounds (again... I'm sure I weighed that at one point on my way up to my current weight, lol)
20. create a wedding/honeymoon scrapbook
21. update and organize all my photos
22. pass an advanced beginner swimming class
23. visit every state in the US (and I haven't been to DC yet either, so I'll include that... and you may be saying that, "hey wait, she already said hawaii"... that gets its own entry because I really really want to go there)
24. go back to school (for what... tbd)
25. visit eastern europe to learn more about my ancestry as well as visit

I'd really like to hear about what some of your things are too... post a few of your favorites and let me know so I can go check it out. :)

what?!

just when you thought it was safe to rely on cheap fast food. now you can't even have a solid dollar menu to get you by at 2am or later. (sigh) what is this world coming to?

on a food related-note, I made a pretty kick-butt meal last night. part from a recipezaar recipe, part from me. I did cheese stuffed chicken wrapped in bacon with roasted red potatoes with garlic and onions. I thought it turned out pretty good. das thought it was almost the greatest thing since sliced bread! which was really awesome. das is one of those people who will tell me it needs work, how it needs to be fixed, and eat it anyway. which rocks. :) it makes for a good cooking environment. last night when we were eating, I asked what he thought. he responded that it was good. but there were no additional tips he added. cool, I thought. then I get an email at work today that said everyone at work wants the recipe for the greatest recipe ever. what?! I didn't realize the enthusiasm for this chicken deliciousness. anyway, I typed up a quick recipe for the peeps at his work... and now I can't wait until das tells them about the homemade pickles I did last night. :) they have to set for 10 days... so I'll let you know how they turn out on august 16th. don't let me forget.

woo hoo!!

it's national tequila day! so break out your cocktail shakers and do up a margarita right! or check out that link for a bunch of other non-salt-and-lime-cringe-inducing-tequila-shot recipes.

especially those of you who are participating in your last day of the survivor challenge - you need it! :D good luck all!

enjoy! and drink responsibly. :)

yup. it's that kind of day...

taken from an email I sent to my coworkers today. I was just lazy and didn't feel like retyping it. [sigh]:

I have a loan for which I make payments via phone. it's just easier. so I have a listing of numbers that I can call in my checkbook... and last month when I made the payment the voice on the other end spewed off another number that I could call to bypass all the "press one, press two, press one again" nonsense. I figured I'd give it a shot this month... but I noticed that I'd had two question marks after the number. so... of course... without checking, I dial the new number (here at work mind you) and the very sensual recorded female voice on the other end says, "hey baby" and before she could describe to me what she was wearing and how she liked it, I hung up. I promptly dialed the old standby number and when the voice on the other end spouted off the number yet again... I realized I'd missed ONE number... I wrote down a 4 instead of a 2. so... the moral of this story is... well, the first is if you write down question marks after a phone number, you'd be better off NOT just up and calling the number... and the second... do your best to NOT call "ladies of the night" from your work number. :)

quickie!

• didn't get to sew last night, but I did pin, so when I get home tonight, I anticipate I'll be able to finish the top to the quilt. I'd like to think so anyway. :) perhaps I will miss some american idol, but... I'd rather finish that up. especially if we'll be taking it to chicago with us at the end of april. I need to give my LAQ more than enough time to finish this king size up.


• my new obsession is facebook. I can't stop. really. I did find a group, though, of under-30 quilter/knitters... so yay for that. it will probably be a short-lived procrastination tool... we'll see.


• wii fit is coming out on may 19th. or, well, coming out on may 20th. maybe I could get it for das for his birthday... and then when he doesn't use is... I can get it... nah... too cruel.


• I am going to be putting together a proposal to get my quilt guild online. now, I may have mentioned that I'm not in a quilt guild, but just not one locally. I am in my mother's guild, which is in my hometown in maine. I know some of the people in the guild, but not that many. I would love to be able to get them online and really be involved in centralizing information... we've already made the first step in emailing our newsletter rather than sending it out via snail mail (saves on postage!). so... it's only a matter of time. any suggestions?


• I put a counter on the site... it may just end up being more depressing than anything, ha ha.

and for those of you who wanted pictures... I am posting an older shot (last fall) of my baby, bowser, posing in front of a baby quilt (or rather 1-year birthday present by the time I got it done). the pattern is one that was in a magazine... wow, I wish I had more useful information than that. but I did another in blues, golds, and browns (with monkeys) for a little boy. it was really easy to put together and I just did some ditch quilting around the blocks. I do like the pattern, and it was big enough to be crawled upon on the floor, but also small enough to not get lost in as a baby/toddler.

and another picture... that I think you all will appreciate!

why I married him...

so my DH has decided that we shall take a mini-trip for our one--year anniversary! yay! we are going to be heading down to mystic to stay in a cabin plus go to the aquarium (been in ct for 8 years, and have never been) and to visit the area shops and perhaps partake of the "slice of heaven" mystic pizza! there's a really cool "nautical nightmares" guided tour at the seaport that sounds like a lot of fun too. we'll be taking along the mini-grill, too, so that we can at least cook up a hearty breakfast with some eggs and bacon. mmmm... bacon. :D the cabin is pretty cool... it's kind of like camping, but with a real bed and real walls. there's a mini-fridge, but other than that, it's just a bed and an end table, plus a porch swing out front and (hopefully) an area for an open fire (can you say s'mores?). bathrooms/showers are outside and whatnot. I'm really psyched for this trip!! it'll be the only weekend we have to really relax until the trip to ireland, so I'm glad for it.

also, on a side note... I have been thinking about teaching an adult education quilting class in my town. I noticed that they have a few crafty things... scrapbooking, photography, sewing ("sewing shortcuts" is the only one). but there was nothing for quilting. I figure that it would be a good opportunity to give teaching a try... I've already kind of thought about what I could do or how I would set it up. it would probably only be a max of 8-10 weeks (just from what I saw with the other classes) and class time would be an hour or two. I wouldn't want anyone to get burned out... but it'd be nice to be able to do half the class talking about color, different patterns/shapes, technique, and then be able to put those to use with a simple nine-patch lap quilt, or star wall-hanging. although, I guess it would depend on what it is they want or need... maybe 100 people have already asked to teach a quilting course and they just aren't interested! [sigh] who knows?! I have emailed the director of the adult education program to see what sort of process is involved with applying to be a teacher... we'll see!

[update: I had wanted to add that DM took a jewelry class through adult education (which got my gears turning) and she was making a fabulous necklace. the teacher was from the beadin path in freeport. I'm getting one of the necklaces... hopefully in time to match my little black dress for one of the two weddings left this season!]

as expected...

... I sat on my duff all night last night and ultimately got *nothing* done. I could have at least organized my stuff for saturday's potential quilt-all-day-to-benefit-breast-cancer-research thing, but noooo. I watched tv. I mean, yeah, I got home late from work... then defrosted wings for das and a salmon steak for moi... by the time we were done eating, we were well into our dvr'd and regular tuesday nite programming. which by the way is killing my sleep schedule... gah! we've got bowling league tonight, and tomorrow is just out-of-control crazy with 'closing day' at the club then a late-late night soccer game. no wonder I've been having coffee this week... I can't help it! so *maybe* after league tonight I can get my butt in gear and prep some things... (I'd wanted to cut out everything so that I can just sew sew sew on saturday). or maybe I'll sit on my duff again and watch tv. I'm voting for option (2). [sigh] :(

first post

hello fellow internet junkies... this is my first post (to this blog). I hope to focus this blog on quilting... and keeping up to date with my quilting (as a motivator to be finishing things) but I will be posting on other things as well. I do a lot of things other than quilting... soccer, bowling, bartending, cooking, lazing... hopefully there will be enough to keep things slightly interesting. enjoy!