Facebook Fun!

What fun! Because of Facebook, I've been befriended by my husband's nieces and nephews in Pennsylvania. Marissa, Marci, Tran, Joel, Jeff -- just to name a few...

Yesterday, thanks to Facebook, I saw Marci (Pittsburgh) giving her baby, Graem, a bath in a salad bowl (actually, a $50 European spa baby tub), then I kidnapped a picture from Kelcy's blog (my Iowa niece) about her Safari nursery decorating project, I posted some new pictures of my granddaughter Lillian on my Facebook page and then I found out that Tran & Joel (Philadelphia) are ALSO expecting a new baby in December. Suddenly, in my family, for the next generation -- it's like a baby wallapalooza...

And I love hearing about their lives.

Although, when I tried to pull this wedding photo off Tran's blog -- it came to me small and fuzzy. But you get the idea. Last September, my husband's nephew Joel married the beautiful Tran (in pink). Tran's parents are on the left, and Joel's parents (Jerry & Linda) are on the right. It was a really amazing wedding. Joel's family is Italian/Irish and Tran's family came from Vietnam. It was a cultural extravaganza -- and I never ate more delicious food (17 courses) in my entire life. I am delighted they're expecting a baby -- and, as near as I can figure (from the disjointed bits you get on Facebook) -- they're vacationing in St. Martin's, and the baby is a boy who will be named Dominic.

Or, maybe I've got it all wrong. They could be vacationing in the Dominican Republic, and the baby will be named Martin...But I'm pretty sure I got the "BOY" part right...

Kelcy's Nursery

My niece, Kelcy, is expecting her first baby in December. That's her in the first picture -- standing in front of the mural she hand-painted on the nursery wall. SPECTACULAR JOB, BABE!

Her Mom (my sister Deena) is working on the BEDDING FOR the jungle-themed room. My other sister, Deb, did the embroidery work -- and the ensemble is turning out FABULOUS! Here are a couple of pictures of the blanket. Deena's still working on the bumper pads and crib skirt.

Kelcy says they do not want to know if the baby is a boy or girl -- and the jungle theme works either way.

HEY -- YOU GO GIRL!! In my humble opinion, the sex of your baby is one of life's most facinating mysteries....

Deb's embroidered words are beautiful:

"Each child brings their own blessings into the world."

GREAT JOB, girls!!

To Blog or Not to Blog...

My assignment for the day was to put together some fun pictures from last year's show -- add some music in the background -- and create a "movie". Believe it or not -- after several frustrating hours -- I managed to do get that job done.

(Although my little movie pretty much sucks -- Martin Scorsese and George Lucas will be happy to know I'm not a threat...)



The difficult task was getting the darn thing uploaded to YouTube. But -- hey -- by midnight -- it seemed I finally got that job done.



However -- just when I thought I had cracked the code...I CAN'T GET THE MUSIC TO PLAY!



Ugh.



So -- you won't be able to watch my pitiful little movie today. And I know you are DEVASTATED, DEANNA. (Deanna is my one faithful reader. Although my cousin Linda checks the blog frequently, if there is no picture, she will not bother to read the text.)



Oh well. To keep Linda interested -- I'm going to post a random picture. She'll enjoy this one -- it's of my old swivel rocker in the living room. As you can see, it dressed up in old Christmas sweaters for the holidays.

Right now, it's wearing a patriotic red, white and blue shirt to celebrate the 4th of July and SUMMER. (underneath, it's a very old fashioned flowered velvet.) Well -- hey -- you don't have to take my word for it. Tomorrow, I'll take a picture of it and POST it in this blog.

Happy Days! Cuz that's a task I've already mastered...well, kinda...

Who Is My Mystery Guest Blogger??

What do the Sewing & Stitchery Expo Sewing Stars do the other 361 days of the year? (when they're NOT teaching in Puyallup?) Well -- this blog seemed like the perfect opportunity for them to SHOW us what they do. When I received these pictures, I decided to make it into a little mystery game...see if you can guess who the "Sewing Star" is...

My hubby is giving our Great twin Nephews a ride on our 4-wheeler. The farm is a great place when little ones want to be entertained. I use the 4-wheeler exclusively around our farm. Rides to and from the field, herding cattle and running short errands.

The baby calf is a twin that had to be bottle fed. After a few days of constant attention I decided that he was going to the sale barn so I draped the back seat of our NEW pick up with a tarp and loaded him in. He rode most contently to his new owners.

Life on the farm is either summer or winter. I'm either mowing grass or shoveling snow. Which brings me to another use for old blue jeans. If your car is stuck and tires are spinning on ice or snow. Stuff a pair of old jeans under the spinning tires and drive yourself right out. It works.

DO YOU RECOGNIZE HER?? Did you get the jeans clue??

And my first love is sewing and creating every chance I get. I just returned home from Janome institute (over the 4th of July) and can't wait to implement all the new machine techniques I learned!

That's right!! It's my friend, Luveta Nickels!! The Junk Jeans gal...She's had a busy summer on her ranch in South Dakota. In this picture, she is holding up one of her new "Schmetz Needle Collections". Luveta is a Schmetz designer because she has some very DEFINITE (and unexpected) opinions about sewing machine needles and jeans. If you'd like to get in touch with Luveta -- to ask about sewing machine needles or snow shovels -- use the hyperlink in the first line of this paragraph.

THANKS, Luveta, for playing my new BLOGGING GAME! Maybe I'll see you in Houston, eh? Otherwise -- PUYALLUP -- HERE WE COME...

Deanna Springer in Pittsburgh

Well -- today's "blogging assignment" is to send myself a picture off my cellphone, then write a little "behind-the-scenes" view of what everybody does the OTHER 361 days of the year. (when we're not working at the Puyallup Sewing & Stitchery EXPO).

This is my friend Deanna Springer. She is the familiar face that used to organize and run the Nancy's Notions booth in the Pavillion.

Deanna is Nancy Zieman's very capable "right hand woman." She is the show manager for "Quilt Expo". , the big Quilt Show in Madison, Wisconsin (coming up soon!). I just made you a hyperlink (I hope). If you click on it -- you should end up on the Quilt Expo website...

Anyway -- I took this picture of Deanna in May at the Spring Quilt Market in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Market is the retail trade show for the quilting industry and it's in a different city every year.) Deanna and I had a little bench we'd meet on....after a few days, we referred to the bench as "our office".

One of the highlights of the Pittsburgh Market was the afternoon Deanna and I went to enjoy "High Tea" at the Omni William Penn Hotel. OMG....I cannot remember the last time I laughed so hard.

We're a couple of country girls at heart, and high tea was a pretty big reach. Sadly, we both tried to fake an English accent...and I can still see Deanna holding her pinky finger up in the air. You would not believe her reaction to the delicate little china bowl of "clotted cream".

Hey, Deanna -- we'll both long remember those little salmon sandwiches with the crusts cut off -- won't we??

At the end of one hour of rioteous laughter, Deanna turned to me and said, with a completely straight face, "Gee. I would've thought our waiter would have enjoyed us more."

Oh, yeah. We annoyed him to Nooooo end, babe!! It's a good thing we were leaving town the next day. I'm pretty sure we were officially banned from anything approaching a High Tea event...

GREAT PICTURE, DEANNA....you ROCK....

Pillowcase DRESSES GALORE

Here's another picture of my friend Bonnie with just a few of her 120+ pillowcase dresses!! Every one is a treasure. She gave me one for my new granddaughter, Lillian -- and as soon as I get the pictures back from the "real" photographer -- I'll be posting that, too. OF COURSE..!

During her visit to Barb's Illinois home, Bonnie enjoyed going to Goodwill stores and thrift shops -- on the hunt for vintage pillowcases and/or sheets for her recycled-dresses.

Remember when I said Bonnie and Barb are "identical" twins? (Bonnie lives in Seattle but spends the summer at Barb's house in Monmouth, Illinois). Well -- imagine how much FUN it was for Bonnie when she would bump into somebody at a thrift store! They would typically say, "Gee, Barb -- I've never seen you in here before." And Bonnie would gleefully pretend to be Barb...and act like she shops at thrift stores all the time...

In these two pictures of Barb's back yard -- you can see her city-square-sized fountain, two separate dining rooms, three living room areas and a vine-covered gazebo (complete with a ceiling fan and piped in music). Oh, yeah -- my guess is she doesn't really know much about "thrift store shopping"...

Kick It Up A Stitch

The tall guy is Steve Jeffery of Babylock. Next to him is Lois Clark -- the delerious HAPPY WOMAN who just found out, (moments before this picture was taken), that she won a BABYLOCK ELLISSIMO Sewing/Embroidery machine! Of course -- there's Nancy Zieman next to her, and Mary Mulari on the end. Nancy & Mary just presented their hilarious program, "Kick It Up A Stitch" at our Friday Night LIVE event in Puyallup. the 800 seats SOLD OUT QUICKLY -- and Lois Clark was certainly GLAD she got one, eh?? When I start the "Official show blog" next month -- I'm going to start off with an interview with Lois -- and some pictures of her favorite sewing projects. She also sent some pictures of her taking classes on her new Ellissimo...and she is completely DELIGHTED. Lois is an artist -- that's for sure. Her stuff is AMAZING...