I think I might have found a gym to join :-)

There's a church near me that has a Recreation & Outreach Center that includes a fitness center & walking track. I'm going to check it out tonight. It's open 6am - 9 pm M - F (closes at 5 for church on Wed though) and from 8 am to 2 pm on Saturdays. Are you ready for the cost? Get this .. it's $25 for the walking track only or $50 for both the walking track & the fitness center. That's not the monthly cost, that's the annual cost! I've already decided, without even checking it out yet, that I'm forking over the $50 tonight :-).

~QB29

Secrets :-)

My church does "secret sisters" every year. We draw names and then spend the year secretly praying for the lady whose name we drew. If we want and are able, we send little notes or presents throughout the year, letting our secret sister know we're praying. I'm being very sneaky about my sister this year. I set up a secret sister email address and emailed her. She has no idea who I am, but yet is able to communicate with me. Isn't it fun being sneaky?

~QB29

I think I'm going to make this!

(photo courtesy of Julie Herman, aka Jaybird Quilts)

Play School Quilt by Jaybird Quilts. It's a new design she added this week.

It was on Moda Bake Shop recently and looks super easy to make.

~QB29

Trominoes

Who thinks this would make a good quilt pattern?


It's called Trominoes and it's my latest project for school. We had to write a recursive program that would cover a 2^n X 2^n board with trominoes, leaving blank only one square. And guess what? It's done and it's only Monday and the project is not due until Thursday :-).

New Year's Eve Partying :-)

My church is having its annual Watchnight service on Thursday. It includes a potluck meal - every family is suppose to bring a dish to share. It usually works out that enough people bring main dishes, side dishes, and desserts. This year, I'm bringing two desserts.

First up: Chocolate Pretzel Buttons from the Pioneer Woman's Tasty Kitchen site. They're easy to make.

Second up: More brownies! Instead of making them with peppermint, I'm going for a cookie flavor. I'm using Hershey's cookies 'n' cream candy bars for the frosting and chopped oreo cookies in place of the chopped peppermint candies. For ease of serving, I'll go ahead and put them in muffin cups like before.

Have a safe New Year's Eve and see you next year!

~QB29

Some Goals for 2010

An email group I'm on has been discussing setting resolutions or goals for the coming year. I've been thinking about them ever since I read the first email regarding the subject. Some of them are quilty, but the ones I've been thinking about today are not quilt related. So here goes ....

1. Lose 10 percent of my body weight.
2. Exercise at least 3 times a week.
3. Eat a balanced diet, with less fast food then I've been eating now.

I'm trying to keep my goals simple so that I actually have a chance of doing them without getting frustrated with one and solving that frustration by doing none :-).

I'll have more later this week, some quilty and some non-quilty.

~QB29

My newest design!

For Christmas I received fabric from 3 different people! My Aunt sent backing fabric plus three different focus fabrics. My mom gave me a charm pack, and my sister gave me a honey bun roll. I've dug into the honey bun roll and here's the design I've come up with:

The 16-patches are made up of 1" squares. The white border to each of the 16 patches are actually the white print that was in the honey bun. The sashing is also 1" wide. The cornerstones will be one of the "lighter" prints in the honey bun. The white inner border will probably have to be a white solid or tone on tone, as there is not enough in the honeybun to do a white inner border. The pink will be one of the prints, but I am ordering a couple yards for the border and binding. The quilt will finish at 39" - 43", depending on how wide I make the outer border. The minimum I'll make it is 4", but I may make it 6", depending on how it looks.

The honey bun was Mary Engelbreit's "Baskets of Flowers" for Moda.

I'll post a pic when I'm done sewing the top. I hope to finish it this weekend. I'm getting the boys tomorrow afternoon and keeping them through supper on Monday to help my sister out. Her daycare is closed all week, but she can't take the whole week off work.

My mom gave me the Critters Charm Pack from Studio E Fabrics.

I'm not sure what pattern I'll use yet.

~QB29

peppermint brownies - another view

I cut them into small rectangles and placed each in a cupcake liner for easy serving. Plus cutting them up meant know one noticed the giant hole left from taste testing one or two or four or 12 (okay, maybe it was just 2).

~QB29

Look what I made ....

Not quilty, but yummy! Peppermint Brownies :-). Bake a box mix of brownies (or your own homemade recipe) as directed. As soon as you pull it out of the oven, top with about 15 Ghiradelli dark chocolate mint filled squares. Pop back into oven about 1 minute. Spread melted chocolate over brownies. Immediately top with chopped peppermint candies (the star light mints or candy canes). Let cool and enjoy!

I'm having them for dessert tonight, but I may have to have a test taste this afternoon. I'll let you know how they are. The recipe is from the Ghiradelli site, but I substituted a box mix for the homemade mix they had.

QB29

win a $20 gift card

Rhonda over at ravelly1 is giving away a $20 gift card to her favorite store, Common Threads. If you would like to win, follow her instructions here.

~QB29

love tracking numbers....

I'm waiting on a package from Fedex. They have excellent tracking info.
At 6:06 PM on Sunday the company electronically sent the info to fedex.
The package arrived at Fedex at 6:00 AM the next morning.
That night at 10:24 PM it left the origin facility heading to another Fedex locatin.
It arrived there at 10:25 am the next morning.
At 6:12 PM it departed for the sort facility that services my area, arriving there at 8:38 PM
It arrived in my city at the local Fedex at 7:42 AM this morning and ....
at 8:36 AM was scanned while being loaded onto the "fedex vehicle for delivery"

Now if I could just GPS the truck to see where it is in my fine city, lol.

Woo hoo, it will be here today :-D.

~QB29

long overdue update

Hi there!

Here is my long overdue update. :-)

School's been working me hard. I'm in the midst of a term project, a group project, and a paper on Computer Ethics, plus lots of other fun homework :-). It's going well, though, and I'm enjoying it.

I came up to my mom's for Thanksgiving. Bubby (my older nephew) spent Wednesday and Thursday nights with us. He "helped" me make the pumpkin pie. I let him dump the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix. My mom also let him help her make break-n-bake cookies. He got to put them on the cookie sheet! He was so excited that he got to help. After we made the pumpkin pie, all day long he wanted his "pumpkin cake" that he helped make. No amount of correction got him to say pie. It was always cake, lol.

Because he was here, I did not go out this morning. I didn't trust him to stay in bed if he woke while I was gone (my mom was back in her room) and I definitely was not taking a three year-old shopping at 4 in the morning. Instead, we slept in some and hung around the house, until we left to go to ... the Fabric Shack! Bubby was really good at the store. He stayed in his stroller like a good boy. He loves to go shopping! He especially loves any fabric store.

I left my camera at the house and mom's batteries are dead, so pics will have to wait. I told myself I was not buying anything, but they had one of their sale carts outside the store and one of the fabrics caught my eye and my "no-buy" was off. I didn't get too much - less than one bagful for a change.

I'm not sure if I'll get to post again before finals week, so if not, check for me in mid-December :-).

Everyone have a great next few weeks!

~ QB29

benefits

So arriving in my work email (which I'm checking via webmail, but most people only check in office), is the "open enrollment coming up" email. It states, "Additional details are on the way in the coming weeks." Yes, weeks as in plural. Problem is, open enrollment starts in a week from Monday. Hello!! Don't we need our information BEFORE open enrollment starts???? Like, duh, that would help! Especially since our medical insurance provider is changing (back to the one we had just before the buyout), our dental insurance provider is changing (not that it matters to me - I have a cheaper plan on my own), our pharmacy benefits are changing to a new provider, and there are new eligibilty criteria for the upcoming year. So it's not like we can just elect to re-up everything we've got, since EVERYTHING is changing. Even our Flex Spend is changing - the max amount is higher now.

Timing, people, timing. It makes a world of a difference.

So once I get my packet (Monday, hopefully????), I'll have to begin the whole "provider search" to make sure my primary care plus my two specialists plus the new specialist I'm seeing the 2nd to last day on the current plan are on the new plan. If the new one is not on the plan, I'll be cancelling her in the next week or two. No sense in going to see her once and then having to turn around and do another "new patient exam" with the next one. Let's just hope this new plan doesn't have anything against allergy shots. According to the reactions I get each time, I'm nowhere near ending them yet.

~QB29

Feeling Better!

Thanks everyone who prayed! My temperature was normal today :-). Let's just pray it stays that way 24 hours. I could tell before I took it that I no longer had a low-grade fever. I've had lots of energy today and even cleaned! I mopped both bathrooms, the entry way, and the hallway. I scrubbed on my hands and knees in front of the washer/dryer and the back entry way (it needed it!). I also vacuumed the stairs and upstairs hallway and cleaned the upstairs bath. I still need to take care of laundry, but that's a never-ending tasking, and rehang the shower curtain liner - I soaked it while cleaning the bathroom.

Hope y'all are have a fantastic weekend!

~QB29

3 words:

GO BIG BLUE!!!

~qb29

The Results

Suspected H1N1 flu. Test was inconclusive, but he said it's possible they just didn't get enough germs to test it. Given my asthma history and the fact that of the 5 co-workers and 4 of their kids who have been sick in the past two weeks, at least 3 of them have test positive for the flu, so he's treating it as such. I'm on Tamiflu, my asthma meds, and as needed, Ibuprofen, unless any complications arise. Of course it goes without saying, lots of fluids and rest. I can return to the land of the living on Monday, providing there are no complications.

~QB29

Fever

My fever was 101.2F when I got home from work today. I didn't realize it was that high! I'd been having chills since after lunch and have been wheezing most of the day. I'm doing a breathing treatment now and then heading to the local walk-in clinic. If it's the flu, I really hope they give me Tamiflu. With asthma, I can't afford any complications. A little ol' sinus infection caused me weeks (maybe months, I lost track) of flareups last year. I don't need any of that this year!

Keep me in your prayers. I'll update later tonight or in the morning.

~QB29

Friendship Bag Swap

Remember the cute green and pink little bag I blogged about a few posts back? Well, here's the cutie that I received in the swap. Jenn at Frugal Front Porch made mine. She also included a handmade Christmas ornament and a cute key chain and some other goodies. Didn't she do a great job? I love the colors of the bag.



~QB29

Pink Baby Quilt Finished!

Picture's not the greatest, but it's finished. Except for the label, lol. I just had to call and check the spelling of the name. Done before the baby shower for a change, though not before the baby's birth. The baby was a preemie and is still in the hospital. They are anticipating she'll go home beginning of November. Our church is hosting a baby shower on the 22nd for the mom. The family had just joined our church when the mom began having complications. The baby was delivered a few weeks later. I machine stitched the binding, but I definitely need practice. I followed the directions that came in a magazine this month - I think the AQS magazine.

~QB29

Finally getting to sew some!

Guess what? I got to sew this week. I made not one thing, but two. First up is a little friendship bag. I participated in an online swap and made this for my partner. Mine came Thursday; I'll post a pic of it soon. My partner liked brights. When I went shopping, the quilt store had these two paired together, and I couldn't resist. I mainly followed the pattern, but used a whole piece in place of the 5 1/2" X 1 1/2" pieced top of the little bag. I also used grosgrain ribbon in place of making fabric handles. I used one of my "fancy" stitches to quilt the top and then 3 parallel lines on the bottom. It was a fun and easy pattern to make a cute little bag.





I also was able to get together with a friend tonight to sew. Another friend from church was there as well. I made a hooded towel. I've been wanting to make one of these for awhile and since my nephew's birthday is this week, I figured now as a good a time as any. At first I was going to do a puppy dog, but then decided Elmo would be better. I swung by Walmart on the way to pick up the towels. I followed these directions. I did modify them a bit, rounding the hood part some (like making the corner on a purse) and added the face.



Doesn't my table lamp make a good model?

I hope to get a baby quilt bound (the one that Jill quilted for me) this week as well. The baby shower will be in two or three weeks. I can't go to the shower since I have class that night, but I'll drop it at church or send it with a friend. I'm also working on a quilt for the lady at church who was hurt in the car accident.

Loving fall break! No classes Monday or Tuesday, though I still have to go to work. No homework in theory. Had two tests this week and 1 coming up the week after fall break. So no massive amounts of homework for a few days!

Hope y'all have a great weekend! I may be too busy enjoying my sewing time to visit any.

~QB29