What I am reading?

Occassionally, I visit a woman's blog (don't recall anything other than it is Mary on the Stashbuster list - yahoo groups- and she is in New England. I love to see what she is currently reading. She is an AVID reader. Me, I can take a long time to read one book as I read during my lunch at work (and not every day) and just before bed most nights to help me fall asleep or while "floating" about in the pool working on my tan for THEE wedding in August. What this means is I read some pages twice as I may be really really tired and forget what I read the last time and need to re-read a page or two to refresh my aging braincells. Not good for fast turn over of books.

This is my first Martha Grimes' book and it is okay. Not a romance and not a good-enough mystery so I am not flying through it. It needs to "pickup" soon or I will be just wasting my time finishing it. I rarely do not finish a book but this one I am considering.

Oh and I get them at the library and pay 50 cents for a paperback and $1 for a hardbound book. I found that checking out books was creating a long long line of renewals. At the cost of gas I can get a good bargain and only go about 4 times a year. Last Saturday I went and got 14 paperbacks and 5 hardbound books for the grand total of $12 left in the envelope. Add to that less than $3 in gasoline(currently $2.91 a gallon) and you have a great deal, eh?

This is the magazine I got in the mail yesterday. I thought my subscription had expired but they (magazines) send the renewal notices so early now that who can tell. I am looking forward to reading this magazine as I am trying very hard to get a spinning wheel. They come in such a variety of options and prices that I am building a spreadsheet of the different things to consider.

My water housed friends at work

My boss's boss mentioned he had heard I had a "pet. I corrected him and let him know indeed I have two water-housed friends at my desk. They do make the day go bye enjoyably and as time goes on they are starting to show their personalities. Kit, the male betta fish is a pig! He has been eating everything intended for the African Dwarf Frog, froggie. Poor froggie I hope he makes it as he is such a mellow dude. He just hangs out with his body curved around the little half round stones in the 1 gallon tank they share. Or goes to the surface and "dangles" there. I'd love to put in a larger tank but I do have to remember I AM at work.

Kit and froggie watching me take their picture.

Kit upclose and blurry. He does not hold still as well as froggie does, thus his name S"KIT"ish. When I first got him he would nearly jump when the lab door would close over 50' away!







Froggie upclose and mellow. This morning he was even swimming about the tank. I have only seen him eat one pellet of food a couple days ago so I hope that he eats from the "bottom" as he is suppose to do this weekend. It is pretty messy down there right now with all the food that is just for him and sinks to his bottom location. Even Kit did not eat this last batch of food. Somewhere I have pics of the prehistoric looking dinosaurs I "grew" in Kit's original Publix mixed nut plastic jar to feed to Froggie. Kit scoffed the first two up so fast I was afraid to try and feed Froggie any more for fear that Kit would explode. The piglet!

Winnie quilt block received 5/4/06

Here is the block received yesterday on 5/4 for Winnie's quilt from Mary Hickory. I also received 16 emails yesterday from people indicating they were sending a block or blocks for the quilt! I am sooo excited and can hardly wait to see everyone's blocks. I may even have to make more triangles if the inside gets bigger. YEA!

third Triangle Update 5/3

Okay so I have been a bad bad hand quilting girl and I have not done much of anything on THEE wedding quilt. Here are a couple of pics showing the little bit I have done.
On April 28th it looked like this



After a wee bit of work on it on May 1st and 2nd it looks like this.


Today I managed to get most of the third brown curved stem on the left side down but i have not taken a picture yet today. Been too busy downloading software so I can get the pictures off of my camera while at work. Where I can also add to my blog. This brings the total number of hours worked on this quilt so far at 115 hours! That does NOT include preparation time, washing of fabric, or even picking out the fabrics! Amazing, eh?

Here is a picture of what I saw on my way to get my morning cappaccino at Tarek's Cafe. A short but nice walk from my cube.

I never saw a dragonfly this large before. it was bigger than my hand in length and width!

"Cheer up Winnie" blocks 4-6 on

Connie Lukas sent two blocks r'cvd 5/1/06 in their civil war fabrics they are sure to be a hit with Civil War Winnie don't you think?


This lovely red and white Trooper Green's Badge arrived on 5/2/06 from Linda/hersheybar. Lovely isn't it? Oh and it IS square my cropping job at work stinks! sorry Linda.

"Cheer Up Winnie" quilt project progress- 1st blocks arrive!

Yesterday, April 27th the first block arrived for my dear friend Winnie's "cheer up" quilt. Winnie had major surgery April, 19th and was to get out of ICU yesterday. Dear Jane friends from several "lists" are mailing blocks of any size to me to make into the quilt for Winnie. You can see her website here http://vermontcivilwar.org/winnie/index.shtml Winnie wrote the Tidbits to the main dear jane list ( www.dearjane.com) and they were enjoyed by many. Maybe when she is feeling back up to snuff (just WHAT does that mean anyway?) she could post some Tidbits again? Anyway, here are the first blocks to arrive.

Connie Ross' was the first to arrive ( the applique'd cat)



Janet Rausch's KITE arrived today! Wow how cool is that she sent a kite!



Claudia sent a "poof" block which she reverse applique'd an area in the center to use as a siggie section and then pigma penned some lovely flower accents around the outside of it. I can hardly wait to see what block arrive next! CORRECTION: Claudia sent a Hannah Lou's Hearts block! In my defense "my" poof block is not the "right" way so I made a big mistake. So apologies to Claudia for messing up her block's name and now I will try once again to load the pics. I tried three times when I initially did this post. so here goes again! NOTE: 5/3/06 trying yet aaaaa gain to upload these pics. here's hoping!



Thank you for reading and thank you for participating in this project for Winnie who is so dear to my heart!

Second Triangle Finished!

On
















April 10, 2006 at 2:15pm I finished the second triangle for the quilt. In the pictures you can see the full block area and a closeup of the fabrics making up the lotus blossom.