a bag of chips

'Tis the Season

For arts-n-crafts, baking, quilting, sewing, buying, wrapping, unwrapping, cooking, eating, talking, drinking, singing, driving, hugging, watching, kissing, mailing, and very little sleeping.

I overcooked these yummy scones just a tad, but they were still wonderful, especially slathered in butter. Oh how I love cranberries.

I made this quilt for a very special someone whose favorite color is, well, red. I cut 2 or 3 10-inch blocks from about 12 different fabrics and then cut the blocks in half. I randomly paired up the 5 x 10 pieces and sewed them together, then alternated the direction of each block. It is 6 blocks x 5 blocks and is a great lap quilt size.  I used the same fabrics to bind the quilt, and the backing is part of a sheet set I bought on sale at Target. And if you haven't tried them yet, buy some Color Catchers by Shout at your grocery store. This very red quilt was washed with four or five of them and it came our beautifully.  I use a color catcher in almost every wash load.

 

I made this one the family member whose name I drew for our family Secret Santa exchange.  I made this one using a Moda jelly roll from their Arcadia line. I just love the colors in this line. All the blocks are random heights, but they're all the same width, thanks to the pre-cut 2.5 inch strips. I really like how this one came out, despite the fact that one whole column was left out of the quilt. I found it in a heap on the floor below my ironing board just after I finished quilting it. I thought it looked a bit smaller than I had anticipated. I used strips from the jelly roll for the binding, and used some fat quarters from the same line for the backing.

I've also made about 20 of these coffee cup cozies from this pattern. They made great presents for teachers and room moms, and my aunts and cousins, all Starbucks addicts, will be getting one for Christmas as well.  I've even got a few of my own in my purse and I really do like them.

A few weeks ago the girls and I had a fun time around the house with me and my camera and my flash which I rarely use and hardly know how to.  But I got some great shots, my favorite of which is this one.  

So needless to say, it's been crazy busy around here and we've got something going on every day this week, and then we're getting the heck out of here next week. So I'll bid you all farewell until next year when I promise to be a better blogger, lose 40 pounds, pick my nose less, recycle more, see my dentist regularly, take a yoga class, curse less, drink more water, plan meals each week, take vitamins daily, get more sleep, keep my craft space picked up, and organize our sock drawers.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Giveaway Alert!

Go to www.writeclickscrapbook.com for a super Ella Publishing giveaway!  We're giving away one of our first eBook releases titled  "A Year in the Life" featuring many of your favorite Write. Click. Scrapbook. designers (including me!), and two of the "Vintage Hip Christmas Crafts" Ella eBook by the fabulous Margie Romney-Aslett and her daughters:

 

Go now for a chance to win!

Christmas came early!

On the heels of my insanely bad day (thanks for all the sympathy and understanding), two great new things have found their way into my world and onto my list of How-Did-I-Ever-Manage-Without-This-Thing, a list that currently includes my iPhone, Kitchen-Aid stand mixer, camera, new wiper blades, reading glasses, and my iMac.

The first great new thing was generously sent to me by Epson to review here for those of you who may be in the market for a new does-everything-but-brew-coffee kind of printer. And this new printer couldn't have come at a better time. We'd recently relocated one of our spare computers to the living room for the kids to play on and we recently had a wireless network installed so that that computer would have internet access.  And I'd been wanting a printer for this computer since it's the only one actually in the house.  

So enter this beauty:

This is the Epson WorkForce 610 which faxes, scans, copies and prints in full color and is WiFi compatible. It was a breeze to install on our older PC with Windows XP and to prove my point I didn't say one bad word at all during the installation and set-up process.  It prints photos beautifully and is quite pretty all sleek and black.  I also love that you can print from a camera data card or USB flash drive without even booting up the computer (though I haven't actually tried that yet). The kids are enjoying being able to print everything they can from their nickjr.com adventures, and Chris likes that he can print from his laptop from pretty much anywhere in the house, including the bathroom and the doghouse.

To sweeten up this already sweet machine, I just saw on Epson's website that they are offering a $100 instant rebate which brings the price of this printer to just $99.99. Yes, that's a huge 50% off.  So if you or someone on your list might appreciate a great new printer at a smoking fab price, follow the link above and get it in time for the Holidays.

I'm a life-long Epson fan, and currently also own an Artisan 800, Stylus R1800, and an Epson Perfection flatbed scanner. I've never had any serious problems with any of the Epson products I own and have been very happy with their performance, both on a PC and then on a Mac. Most of the photographers I know, and even Scott Kelby whom I don't know but would love to meet someday, use Epson printers exclusively. Happy shopping!

And the second life-changing piece of machinery acquired recently is this:

And unfortunately it wasn't sent to me by Viking out of the kindness of their hearts, but I did buy it virtually new-in-the-box from a very nice new friend I met through the LA Modern Quilt Guild.  It took me about a week to finally open the box and set it up at Quilt Central (aka the dining room table) and let me tell you something right here, right now. It's like going from a Pinto to a Porche. No shit. It's quiet and sophisticated with all the features I'd been looking for.  

I even found a Viking dealer and dropped another $150 for a walking foot, a darning foot for free-motion quilting, and a 1/4 piecing foot. I finished straight-line quilting the quilt I've been working on for my mom in record time and had absolutely none of the problems I'd been having with my older el-cheapo-they-don't-even-make-these-anymore sewing machine.  Though I do appreciate everything I've learned with that my old machine and I also appreciate now much nicer this new machine is in comparison. Oh, and I should know about the Pinto thing. It was my first car. And because I've never driven a Porche I can only assume it would kick Pinto ass all over the road. 

Here is a sneak peek at the quilt I finished up this weekend (mom, if you're reading this, kindly avert your eyes now - no peekies for you!):

 

Don't those perfect quilting lines just float your boat?  (I said no peeking, mom. You're soooo busted, young lady.)

Anyway, thanks for letting me share my early Christmas fun with you. More from me in a few days.

 

Tina and The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

On Tuesday morning I woke up to Nadia whining and crying about having to wear socks. It was 41 degrees outside. She was going to have popsicle toes without wearing socks and all the moms at the school would say I was a bad mommy to let my baby outside in the cold weather without socks because it's always the mommy's fault when their babies don't have on socks and she already has a cold with lots of green boogers in her nose and she coughs and sneezes in my face and wipes her boogers on my clothes. I could tell right away that it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

For breakfast I had to make a different breakfast for all three kids. I made oatmeal for Aidan and then he refused to eat it because it didn't taste like how his daddy makes it and then Makena started whining about how there was too much milk in her cereal and then Nadia asked for yogurt and took one bite and then said she didn't like it and no one else wanted to finish it because she has germs.

I think I need more coffee.

After breakfast and just before leaving for school my housekeeper shows up after not showing up on Monday and Makena and Aidan decided to take out the peg-and-rubber-band thingie and then when it was time to leave I ask them to clean up and put it all away. Then I brush Nadia's teeth and tell her to go potty and then she starts whining and crying about having to go potty and I tell her she has to go anyway so she cries louder. Then while she's screaming I check on Aidan and Makena and not only did they not clean up they made an even bigger mess by having a rubber band fight and now there are rubber bands all over the place so I yell at them about how they never clean up their toys when I ask them to and that I should just put all the toys in the house in the garbage and that I was not buying them anymore toys and that I was going to tell Santa not to bring any toys to my house but only socks and underwear and dental floss and nose spray. I make them cry. And then I start to cry and Nadia starts to cry because everyone else is crying except the housekeeper who thinks I'm insane.

I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

We are late getting to school because of all the screaming and yelling and boogers and not cleaning up and going potty so I make Aidan and Makena get out of the car at the curb instead of walking them in for line-up like I always do. Makena says that she doesn't know how to walk to her class by herself and there isn't enough time for Aidan to walk her to her class so she starts crying so loud with big fat tears that you'd think I had just run over her favorite pink stuffed poodle dog named Betsy and then backed up and ran over it again. All the mommies at the school were looking at me like I was an insane bad mommy for making her walk to her class by herself because it's always the mommy's fault when kids are late for school.

At Target I shop for an hour with a whiney snotty-faced loud demanding baby in the cart and we are in the checkout and the total was over two-hundred dollars and I think about my husband getting the credit card bill and giving me that look and then I realize that my wallet is at home and the cashier looks at me like I'm insane and the person in line behind me looks at the cashier and then looks at me like I'm insane.

I think I need a nap.

Then we get home and there is a contractor coming to the house to meet my husband so we could get a new heater and I ask Nadia if she has to go potty and she says no and while I'm getting Nadia a snack before naptime she pees her pants all over the leather couch and I get very mad so she has an early nap without a snack or sippy of warm milk and she is very mad and screams from her bed while we are trying to talk to the contractor about the stupid heater. The contractor thinks I'm insane. I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

Then I pick up the big kids at school and we get home and I say it's time to do homework. Makena finishes hers and Aidan starts working on his book report and then he starts to whine about not knowing the date and we figure out what the date is and then he cries for thirty minutes about how he doesn't want to write December he just wants to write the numbers and slashes for the date but he doesn't know what the numbers are and I try to help him but he just keeps on whining and crying and when I tell him that he needs to do his carrying on in his room he doesn't listen and goes to lie on the couch that Nadia peed on and scream and cry there instead of going to his room. I have to start dinner. When we finally get the date figured out and written down he starts crying about which book to do his report on and I tell him that if he takes too long to do his book report that he's going to miss out on hot chocolate with the new colored marshmallows. Then he took too long and missed out on hot chocolate and then he started crying and whining and screaming again and then cried again when he couldn't come up with a sentence about feet that rhymed walk with sock for his book report. It took almost two hours to do a 15-minute book report.

Then Nadia and Makena start bothering and annoying and disrupting Aidan so I send them to their rooms so he could concentrate and when I hear someone out of their room upstairs I go upstairs to see Nadia in the bathroom and she had pooped and peed in her pants in her bed and then went into the bathroom to take off her pants and underwear and got poop all over the bathroom floor and all over her hands and she had stepped in it too and has it on her feet. Then Chris comes home and I make him clean up the poop because I've had enough.

I think I'll have a double vodka on the rocks with a double vodka chaser.

Then I finish making dinner and my butternut squash soup is fantastic but I eat it fast so I could get up from the table and go upstairs in my room and put on Season 8 of Everybody Loves Raymond because it's my favorite show and sort and put away the 28957 loads of laundry that we'd been stepping over and moving around our room for over a week and my nail snagged on a sweater and tore and was bleeding and I said a whole string of really bad words. Raymond thinks I'm insane but Deborah understands me.

Then it's the kids' bedtime and Chris tells Nadia to stay in her room and I see her out of her room so I tell her to go back into her room and she sticks her tongue out at me so I give her a swat on her bottom and she cries and says but mommy I love you and tries to hug me and I don't hug her and just tell her to get in her bed. And then when I try to say prayers with Aidan he keeps clearing his throat and then tells me he's done and then he starts doing it again and interrupting prayers so I just turn around and walk out and I go into my bathroom and close the door and cry and look at myself like I'm an insane bad mommy.

Then I get a big hug from my saint of a husband who knew I was insane and married me anyway and then I take a valium and get in bed and watch HGTV until I fall asleep.

It was indeed a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day (except for the hug from my husband and the butternut squash soup because they were fabulous).

The next day I feel better and I talk to my mom who says that even people who live in Grenada and drink lots of vodka and take lots of naps have bad days too and that she was sorry and wished she could give me a hug. Wednesday was was much better than Tuesday which will always be known as my very worst terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. But there's always tomorrow.

(Many thanks to the adorable book by Judith Viorst "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" which is my second favorite kids' book and the inspiration for this blog post.)