New books

I love going to Half-Price Books! I got this great book for only $6.00. How can you beat that?
It's only about 6 inches square, but it's 1-1/2" thick.

I ordered these two books from Nancy's Notions. They're only 24 and 26 pages long, but I love Mary Mulari's sweatshirt designs. I don't have a lot of use for a sweatshirt here in Corpus Christi most of the time, but if I need one, I want it to be good looking. The two of them together only cost me $30.00.


I also picked up these two books by Charlaine Harris at Half-Price Books. I started one at about 8 pm that evening, and finished them both by 4 am! I couldn't put them away. I recommend them highly. I'll be looking for more by this author.



Last, but not least, I picked this up on eBay. I want to try making some of these jars and using them for Gifts-in-a-Jar. I've been saving nice jars for awhile and it's time I did something with them and got them out from under the sink!

Today DH took me to the Home and Garden show in Robstown, TX. It wasn't much to speak of, but Andrew Dan Jumbo was there from TLC's While You Were Out, Trading Spaces, and Take Home Handyman. He did a 30 minute talk about how the shows are done, how to get on the shows, and LOTS of funny stories about the casts of the shows. He was a real riot! He's a good speaker, and after the talk he signed autographs, although I didn't stay for that. (I don't collect autographs.) His talk was worth the $6.50 admission to the show all by itself.

I'm still working on the taxes, getting everything ready to go to the accountant. That's my main goal for this next week, but I might surprise myself and get a couple of other things done as well. One can only hope!

Tax Time!

My heart officially has a clean bill of health. Now if I can keep down the muscle tension in my chest and shoulders, I'll be doing fine. Yeah, right--I will be working on our taxes for the next couple of weeks!

I should have mentioned in the last post that the monster designs I used for the postcards are Kooky Monsters from Embroidery Library.


I finished the grocery bags. The designs I embroidered on them are Jacobean Grapes from Artistic Thread Works. I put the same design on both sides of the bag. I tried these bags out on Saturday--they worked pretty well, but are better used for short grocery lists. I wish they were a bit wider, though.



These are the postcards I have received over the last few days. Top left: My Favorite Color: Orange by Angela H. from the UK. She used different textures and metallic thread to make a very artistic card. Middle left: M is for Marrow by Caroline H. from the UK. I had to ask what a mallow is... a kind of mature zucchini. She used acrylic paints accented with machine stitching. Very nice! Bottom left: M is for Money by Sharon N. in Arizona. The Monopoly money is accented with glitter glue. Top right: Circus by Jeanette de V. from the Netherlands. Beautifully satin-stitched applique with gorgeous fabrics. Bottom right: M is for Music by Flicsha A. of North Carolina. She machine embroidered I (heart) Music on a musical note fabric, and used metallic threads on the heart and around the edges of the card. These cards are swaps from the ArtsNthemail yahoo group.

Amaryllis "Pink Floyd"


Amaryllis "Blossom Peacock"


Eucharis Amazonia

Various Amaryllis in bloom in my husband's potting area, plus a poinsettia on the far end. His website is SoTexPlants.com if anyone wants to order bulbs.

Glowing in the Dark

Thirty nametags finished! They are made of Peltex 70 covered with red fabric. The vinyl windows are edged with purple satin stitching, and are just the right size for a business card blank to slide behind the vinyl to put the name on. I glued a pinback to each one with E-6000. Some of the windows look a little wonky, but my Red Hat friends won't care.



I still need to trim off loose threads, and insert the name cards. Then they will be passed out at the next meeting I can attend.

My next project is to machine embroider some designs on some plain canvas tote bags that I got at Michael's. I bought six to use as reusable grocery bags. The designs will all be food related, and are just to make them pretty and to differentiate them from anyone else's bags.

The bathroom ceiling is now covered with simulated beadboard. We need to paint it as well as all the walls and woodwork. First I will have to strip off the old orange wallpaper (yuk!) DH and I will work on it in small increments as our finances and his health will allow.

Speaking of health, I had the adenosine stress test. It took almost 4 hours, and most of it was easy to deal with. The worst part was the 4 minutes of adenosine. It made me so sick I thought I would pass out. I was dizzy, nauseated, and just felt horrible. Once the 4 minutes were up and the antidote was given (or do I mean antagonist?) I felt better pretty quickly. The results will be here in a few days, but I expect it to come back normal--all the other tests have been.
I will feel much better knowing that my heart is in good shape. Oh--I will be radioactive for about three weeks! They told me I might set off the machine at the airport, or the drug checkpoints between here and the border. I think I will stay home!

M is for....

I met my friends Morah and J. at the fabric counter today and told them I had last posted a week ago. When I checked I see it has been 10 days! The time has gone by so quickly. The store was having a clearance sale ($2.00/yd!) so I had to get a few pieces for my stash.

The bottom two are coordinates with quilty sayings around the blocks. The middle one is a bright bird-of-paradise print that I have no idea why I wanted it except that I love brights! The stripe is only a little less bright, and stripes are great for bindings and to jazz up blocks. The dragon panels were just too cute to pass up, and I may make some pillows out of them for son and DIL. They love dragons.

I finished my "M is for..." postcards and mailed them out. They are "Monsters in the Moonlight" and have machine embroidered monsters hiding behind "trees." The monsters are attached with black rick-rack to the sides of the cards. They can be pulled out from behind the trees, then slid back in. The moon is painted with glow in the dark paint. I am anxious to see how the other swappers like them. I am trying to do out-of-the-ordinary cards this year.



My next project is to make 30 or so reusable nametags for my Red Hat Society group. I drew up the design and have everything I need to get started tomorrow on them.

Monday the handyman will be here to replace the bathroom ceiling, which is in bad shape and is being held up with lots of screws. We are having beadboard panels put up, which should look much better. We only have one bathroom, so it has to get done as quickly as possible. The handyman say it will only take him 3-4 hours. I hope so! We will keep our legs crossed.

Tuesday I have to be at the cardiologist all afternoon for an Adenosine Stress test. They administer radioactive thallium (!) and the test takes about 4 hours, although I do get a break in the middle to go eat something. I'm taking a good paperback book and my sudoku puzzle book.

Happy New Year!

These are the postcards I made for the "Circus" themed swap. The first photo shows the front of the card with velcro tabs attached, meant to resemble a circus tent. The backs of the cards have a circus poster graphic. The bottom photo is what you see when the tent flaps are held open by the velcro tabs. Each has a different circus performer. The multicolored rickrack represents the fringed top of the tent. I'm really pleased with the way these turned out. They will cost extra to mail, and I will send them in clear plastic sleeves, but I think the other swappers will like them. I like doing 3-D cards, but sometimes it's hard to think of a way to do them.

Next on my list is the set of Monster cards. I hope to get them done in the next few days.

This evening I worked on a king sized sheet. I had bought a new one on sale, plus I bought a full sized sheet in the same color. I split it in half lengthwise and sewed half of it onto the width of the king sized sheet. Now my husband won't be hogging the sheet anymore! I'd rather have it drag the floor on one side than be so narrow that he gets it all on his side of the bed. Since my red and green quilt is extra wide as well, I probably won't even see the sheet when the bed is made.