Friday, May 11, 2007

Oops! I forgot!

The weekly weigh in did happen yesterday, but I forgot to check in here with the results. Having changed scales in mid diet, I am not entirely certain of the precise number (but next week I sure will be! ) but I believe it was a loss of just over a pound in the last week. Slow, but going in the right direction. And I am pleased to note that even though the weight is coming off very slowly, the inches continue to drop even when the weight is not changing much at all. The jeans I was so pleased to get into two weeks ago are now a bit loose...

We are finally getting seasonal weather, after one of the worst springs in living memory. I will be doing the roadside stand tomorrow, for the first time this year! Normally I start in March, but it has been just too darn cold and wet to want to be doing anything outside! I have all the cooking and baking done, I have the old farm truck out of storage and in the yard, I have the signs freshly touched up -- in a word, I am ready! I feel like an old war horse hearing the bugles! And I am rather pleased with myself, because I am this ready and organized despite the fact that DH is away and has not been available to help with any of the work around here this week. Hasn't left any time for sewing , though! The room is still clean! LOL

Kitten report! We have our first feral kittens in foster care. There are nine of them so far, about five weeks old, greys, blacks, a smoke with black points, and one very fluffy little torty. Pretty cute, I must say! And now that the kittens have been picked up, we can set traps for the mom cats and get them spayed before they do it again -- that is what "trap, neuter, and release" is all about. Now I just have to find more foster homes, having promised DH that I will do no more fostering until I find places for about half of the cats who presently live here... Hmmm... Maybe I will put a stack of our brochures on the stand tomorrow...

Jean, heading off to look for those brochures...

A sprinkling of snow on the Alps...

We had a sudden weather change yesterday, a cold southerly came through (take a look at what is south of NZ...not a lot...) Today has dawned bright and clear and the Alps have a sprinkling of snow on them. Very exciting !! They look so beautiful from here against the clear blue sky.

The BB has been quiet this week. Maybe, if I had a sewing room , I would spend more time there than on the computer..!!!

DH has hired a tractor this morning so is happy as a sand boy out there, moving soil from one place to another !! He's off to go flying with a neighbour this afternoon. Great day for it. I might spend my time sorting fabrics for my next quilt.

Enjoy your w/end.
Marion.

Worth sharing

I got this email from a friend, and have already passed it on to several people on my mailing list. However, the more I thought about it, the more I thought it was worth posting here, too.

Kathi


Dirty purses
Men, pass this on to your wives. This could go for student backpacks also.

Have you ever noticed gals who sit their purses on public restroom floors -that go directly to their dining tables? Happens a lot!

It's not always the 'restaurant food' that causes stomach distress. Sometimes "what you don't know 'will' hurt you"!

Read on...Mom got so upset when a guest came in the door and plopped their purses down on the counter where she was cooking or setting up the buffet. She always said that purses
are really dirty, because of where they have been.

Smart Momma!!!

It's something just about every woman carries with them. While we may know what's inside our purses, do you have any idea what's on the outside?

Shauna Lake put purses to the test - for bacteria - with surprising results. You may think twice about where you put your purse. Women carry purses everywhere; from the office to public restrooms to the floor of the car.

Most women won't be caught without their purses, but did you ever stop to think about where your purse goes during the day?

"I drive a school bus, so my purse has been on the floor of the bus a lot," says one woman. "On the floor of my car, probably in restrooms." "I put my purse in grocery shopping carts, on the floor of bathroom stalls while changing a diaper," says another woman and of course in my home which should be clean."

We decided to find out if purses harbor a lot of bacteria. We learned how to test them at Nelson Laboratories in Salt Lake, then we set out to test the average woman's purse.

Most women told us they didn't stop to think about what was on the bottom of their purse. Most said they usually set their purses on top of kitchen tables and counters where food is prepared. Most of the ladies we talked to told us they wouldn't be surprised if their purses were at least a little bit dirty.

It turns out purses are so surprisingly dirty, even the microbiologist who tested them was shocked. Microbiologist Amy Karen of Nelson Labs says nearly all of the purses tested were not only high in bacteria, but high in harmful kinds of bacteria.

Pseudomonas can cause eye infections, staphylococcus aurous can cause serious skin infections, and salmonella and e-coli found on the purses could make people very sick. In one sampling, four of five purses tested positive for salmonella, and that's not the worst of it. "There is fecal
contamination on the purses," says Amy.

Leather or vinyl purses tended to be cleaner than cloth purses, and lifestyle seemed to play a role. People with kids tended to have dirtier purses than those without, with one exception. The purse of one single woman who frequented nightclubs had one of the worst contaminations of all. "Some type of feces, or even possibly vomit or something like that," says Amy. So the moral of this story - your purse won't kill you, but it does have the potential to make you very sick if you keep it on places where you eat. Use hooks to hang your purse at home and in restrooms, and don't put it on your desk, a restaurant table, or on your kitchen countertop.

Experts say you should think of your purse the same way you would a pair of shoes. "If you think about putting a pair of shoes onto your countertops, that's the same thing you're doing when you put your purse on the countertops" - your purse has gone where every individual before you has spat, coughed, urinated, emptied bowels, etc! Do you really want to bring
that home with you?

The microbiologists at Nelson also said cleaning a purse will help. Wash cloth purses and use leather cleaner to clean the bottom of leather purses.

THIS IS WORTH SHARING!!!

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Love the photos!

Hi,
Hmmm, I'd love to move right into Jean's sewing room. I doubt if there is room for our two stashes though. Sigh. I seldom envy others but must confess to envying both Jean and Pat's (shown some time ago) sewing rooms!

Marion, your area looks so beautiful. As does the Idaho mountains. It's great being able to post pictures here.

Sisters Quilt Show. I know it's a tad early but wanted to float the idea of a meeting past people. I'll be there and will have a few others with me. Jill, are you going this year? MJ? Anyone else?

Off to play in my small, cluttered, messy sewing room, Mary in Oregon

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Congrats Jean

Well that sure is a clean room Jean! It was tidy the day I was at your house but this is sure nice. Good luck with your plan to keep it that way. I don't have much luck myself, good intentions but the mess seems to be there just moved.

Cheers
Cher in BC

Thank you!

Thank you for the kind words about the sewing room. I am, I must admit, rather pleased with it -- I relied heavily on the book "Dream Sewing Spaces" when I designed it, and I turned a deaf ear every time DH asked what it was costing for the custom cabinets. The bits that don't show in the picture are the glass 'garden' doors onto the deck and the walk in closet with floor to ceiling shelves. The cutting table folds up into a very small space -- although I don't recall ever closing it up -- and the desk with the machines can be moved if I want to set up a quilting frame or something. I put 900 watts of halogen lights in a row of commercial fixtures the length of the ceiling so it is very bright in there at night, too, as well as during daylight hours. It is a very user friendly room.

And yes, Sara, the picture was taken to celebrate the fact that the room got thoroughly cleaned just in time for me to host a meeting of my design group last Wednesday! It has been several years since it looked this good! Of course I am now promising myself to keep it like this... ;)

Jean, who won't be doing any sewing this week...

Beautiful room!

Oh, what a beautiful quilt room. The pictures from all over are wonderful also.
The NZ pics are amazing. As soon as we get the digital camera I'll try my hand at pics also. Just a suburban house, but we call it home. Someone must have dusted, sorted, cleaned out, for days before that picture was taken. My rooom never looked so good, even on a clear day!
It's good to see the areas where we all live. NZ has my vote as the most beautiful so far, but Jane's area on N.C. is easier for me to get to. It is beautiful 3 seasons of the year. The 4th season I'd be here.
OK, enough. I did lift the weights this morning, as it was too smokey to go for a walk. I know this isn't the prayer page, but please send your prayers/good wishes for the fires to go out in this area. People are losing their homes in Ga. and No. Florida. We need that weather system over the coast to come in and put out the fires.
Sara in Smokey Fla.

WOW !!

Jean. I'd be "babbling on" about my sewing room if I had one like that ! It's amazing ! I've shown the photo to my husband, even he had to admit it had more going for it than the windowless attic or the spare bedroom ... my choices when I want to sew...

Marion (boo- hooing into her pre- dinner wine)

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Goodness, what beautiful photos....but....

I'm overwhelmed by the beauty of this world, from NZ to Australia, to the mountains of Idaho, to the lovely trees in Texas but what has caught my eye more than anything is the very neat and tidy studio in Mill Bay, BC. There were rumours about that the quilter of the house had been slaving for weeks on end, divulging bags of left over material and shlepping them out the door but there is nary a speck of dust on the table in that lovely studio with the reminiscent view of the mountain which the studio overlooks. I wonder whose that could be?

Fran, I'm afraid that the last visit of Shannon's was probably quite boring for him. I had things on, Jock was in school in the mornings, which he attends, he says, to keep him off the streets...and Shannon slept and slept and slept. Likely did him more good than if we'd run him around like a tourist.

It hit 80F in Southern Ontario this afternoon, actually 88F. I can't imagine what this is going to do to the trees as it's accelerating the budding process and our flowering trees are likely to come out at the same time as the leafy ones.

The house went through it's bottoming out process today and is clean once again. Hope has been combed and a half a dog came off her. It's that time of year...she's blowing her coat.

Rosey

Flushed with success !!


Just to make sure that I remember how I did it I will post a second photo. This one shows the house, rather than its position in relation to the countryside... We built here 23yrs ago , it was a very bare patch of ground when we came !





I am hoping this works! It is supposed to include a picture of the sewing room I have been babbling about for weeks, as well as a picture taken from the (weedy) patio this morning.




I am noticing a mountain theme here... but then my Dad always said he did not think it was much of a view if it didn't include mountains! B.C. born and bred, we are! LOL




Jean, driving the convertible at last, heading to Curves!!!


Loved the photos, thank you for posting them. I have quite forgotten how to post photos but will try again. Failed miserably yesterday ! If it does post it will show our home on the very flat Canterbury Plains looking towards the Southern Alps . The Alps run down the centre of the South Island, it takes us about an hour to get to what is known as "the great divide."

Our home


This is our home in Rockport, TX. The red door opens in to my studio. Our poor palm trees on the right got a touch of frost this winter, so we have to get the trimming folks to come and take care of them and of the branches on the oaks that are nearly touching the roof. It's been 5 years since we had them trimmed, so it's time again. I hope lots of folks will add pics, I love seeing what's around in different areas.
Pat in Rockport, TX

Our part of the world


OK...I'll go next. This is a picture that was taken of the view from our cabin in Stanley, Idaho. Those are the Sawtooth Mountains in the background. The town (year round population approximately 100) is in the middle of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, which is located in the "heart of Idaho".


Who's next in line?


Kathi in Idaho

Monday, May 7, 2007

Kata Tjuta

Loved the photo Fran. Kata Tjuta is a magic spot... So pleased to hear that the visit went well.

Slight nip in the air this morning, but it looks as if we are in for another warm sunny day. We have got the neighbours Beagle staying for a few days. She is three weeks younger than our Beagle and they see quite a lot of each other . They had a great day yesterday, playing amongst the fallen leaves...no need to take them for walks when they are on a visit like this ! They fell into their baskets, exhausted, last night and were snoring within minutes !!

Golf day for DH today, so he'll be happy with the weather. While we were away I walked around a course with him, first time I've ever been on a golf course, now he's all set to get me the necessary gear and turn me into a golfer...I don't think so ...the exercise would be good for me but I'm not sure that I want to give up all that quilting time ...

I like Jane's idea of posting photos of our homes or surrounding countryside. That would be fun. DH took some photos of this place from a light aircraft recently, they will be "filed" away somewhere I guess ...

A shocking incident in Christchurch this w/end . A party got out of control, lots of youth spilled out onto the road and a car deliberately drove through them, killing two 16yr old girls and injuring seven others.. Evidently, word of the party was circulated via texting ... It must be almost impossible to prevent that happening..

Time to go.
Marion.

Has anyone heard from Doni?

She lives in Kansas, I think. I am horrified over what happened to Greensburg, KS and my heart and prayers go out to all those that suffered from it

ROSEY P. - that flesh that fills out over and above the waistband of pants is what is now known in pop culture as the "muffin top." I have a partial-muffin now at my stomach. That nice middle-age fluff right under the belt buckle. I've read enough over to the years to know it comes with the territory but I don't have to like it. Dieting would make me look starved and it would probably still be there. Waaaah!

SHARYN CRAIG WORKSHOPS - I absolutely loved both workshops I took from Sharyn Craig last week. One day was "Northwinds" and the other was "LeMoyne Star." She has that star thing figured out! It was so easy and my block pressed flat as a board. Ms. Craig is a great teacher, too. I'll take anything from her again. If you ever have the opportunity . . . go for it.

Must run... Hugs to everyone,
Doris W. in TN

More reason to not buy from China

From the New York Times:
www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/world/americas/06poison.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
And this is where much of our quilt cloth is coming from as well the tainted pet food that is hitting NA markets.

Speaking of diets, I've managed to pretty much stay within the same slack size most of my life but yesterday trying on a pair of jeans at Mark's WorkWharehouse resorted in me having the displeasure of viewing multi-layers of cellulite draped around and above my waistline as I tried to do up my jeans. The view discomfitted me to the degree that my age is my reality of floppy skin and added pounds where, in my youth, were nonexistant.

Sunny, cold and displaying the grime of winter dirt on my outside windows...a small price to pay for sun shining in through them. Over the week-end I had an exciting view of an Indigo Bunting at my feeder. However, I think that he was travelling through the area and I may not be so lucky to have him as a permanent guest.

My day will be spent trying to finish up a UFO. Clutter is hitting critical mass again in my studio.

Rosey

Sunday, May 6, 2007

Weighing In

Down one more pound this week, for a total of 32 since October 1st last year. And, another inch off the measurements. I'm pleasantly surprised by this--I have a house guest, and we've been eating out almost every day. She really needs to lose weight, and after seeing me for the first time in about 4 years, I think she is motivated to start when she gets home. She's been watching like a hawk what I choose to eat both at home and when we're at a restaurant. I do hope she's able to do it, that weight is really hard on her.

I was so sorry to hear about the tornado damage. So sad.

Pat in Rockport, TX

WEIGH IN

Down 2.5 lbs for a total of 7 since starting on March 11. That won't break any records but it sure is going in the right direction. Maybe I'll withdraw some of those smaller jeans that are on that table in the community center waiting to be sold or donated. Now, if I can avoid or at least resist the temptation to reward myself I'm motivated to keep at it.

Fran, the photo is beautiful. We should share our environs with each other on the chat page, warts and all. It would help put each of us in a more complete context in addition to our quilting lives. In the interest of a context I guess we can do without a criminal background check however.

Light's good for photos and I'm glad you reminded me about the bird pictures about which I'd forgotten. However, I'm moving veeeeerrrrry slowly this morning and hurt all over.

Jane

Sunday morning on the East coast

Waiting for the morning newspaper to be delivered so I can spend 30 min. relaxing.
After Thursday's quilt guild meeting I finally made up my mind how to cut up the skateboard fabric for DGS #3. One lady showed a quilt who's pattern is "just can't cut it". The focus fabric is 12" and the other blocks are 4" and 6" blocks. That way DGS can see the boys on the skateboards. Thinking of doing a photo of me on a skateboard for the label. After all, one of my goals in life is to be the "cool" grandmom.
The fires in Ga. are still raging, about 18 homes burned now. There are wildfires in the south of us also, around the Ormand Beach area.
We are desperate for rain.
OK, going to go weigh in.
Sara in Fla.

favourite outback pic


I agree with Mary - we had a wonderful time with her, her 3 friends, my sister and a QB from Whyalla travelling north in 2 cars for 8 days or so. DH survived having 7 women around him - I think he actually enjoyed it! It's fun to look at all the photos and see us all covered in fly nets though - I don't think some of the visitors were ready for our overly friendly insects! LOL


This is my favourite scene from my small collection of photos. It's of part of Kata Tjuta, near Uluru. Most of the others had cameras which were easier to handle so I was pleased to find that this one photo came out so well.


It's been terrible to read and see the pictures of the town in Kansas which was razed to the ground by the tornado. I gather the tornadoes are still at large, and moving into Oklahoma. I'm definitely thinking of and praying for all of those who may be in danger right now.


MARION: So pleased to read of the new addition to the sailing family......love the quilt too!!


LAVINIA: I was horrified to read of your treatment at the hands of the quiltfest administrators - <> to you.
ROSEY: Thank you so much for your and Jock's friendship to Shannon while he's been in Toronto. I'm SO looking forward to being able to give him a welcome hug - when he arrives back in Adelaide 3 weeks today!


JEAN: We thought about having a garage sale when we moved house Jan 06, but time got away from us somehow. Now I'm glad we didn't bother! Instead we took at least 5 station wagon loads to St Vincent de Paul's. And because we now have 2 storerooms in the building out the back, we unfortunately brought a lot of stuff with us!! At least we now have a 'his' and 'her' storeroom each, so that the one left to sort out the other's possessions will be halfway organized when it comes to disposing of them.


Off to prepare for this week's classes.

Hugs to all

Fran