Say Hello to my little friend!

We live in a house set quite a ways off the road and the driveway running alongside the property is dirt, not pavement, not cement.  You can imagine how dirty the floors in our house must get!  I am always vacuuming, washing and sweeping the floors.  I kept hearing about this Shark steamer for the floors and thought I should get one.  I LOVE a clean floor and walking barefooted in the house, which means a lot of cleaning.  Anyway, I got the 20% coupon from Bed Bath and Beyond and ran right over there after church yesterday, and scooped one up.  Yesterday was a busy day, so I planned to use my extra day off as a major cleaning day (which is very relaxing to me for some reason).  OMG!!  I love my Shark.  I steamed those floors all morning and was amazed at how clean they are.  Wow!  Glad I plunked the money down!  What a great feeling when the house is all totally clean from top to bottom.

I was supposed to go upstate to see my sis-in-law this weekend, but my truck has been making a funny noise (and vibrating a little) since I got my new transmission a few weeks ago.  So, of course, I could not drive the 5 hours alone at night with a weird sound going on.  My schedule at school was crazy last week so I did not get the truck to the shop.  Hopefully I will get it settled this week.  Instead of going away, I did a few things at home...like sitting outside with my dogs when it was so lovely Saturday and Sunday.  The sky was so blue it seemed like spring was coming.

It snowed today, which meant it was ok to put the Christmas lights on again tonight.  Believe it or not, we still had Christmas up until this weekend too.  Guess it was a good thing I stayed home.  When Rob came to work today I stole him to get the tree in the living room down and to bring everything up to the attic.  He claims that we are getting lazy in our old age, but it was nice to have him helping me in the house like the old days.

This weekend was a restful one really.  We went to Queens to pick up my embroidery machine which is now working at 100%.  I still may get a new one this year because I don't want to use that enormous computer setup I have to use with mine.  Plus the new ones are just so advanced that I can do amazing things with linens, towels, quilts and everything else you can think of.  Pondering...pondering.  Then we watched a marathon of HOMELAND (absolutely amazing) because we thought it was starting up again this weekend.  We literally watched 6 episodes yesterday only to find out that season 3 starts in the fall.  I never watch tv before 8 or 9 p.m. but it was fun to lay around and watch tv all afternoon into the night!  We did not finish watching until after midnight!  If you like spy stories that keep you on the edge of your seat, I know you will love HOMELAND!!

Teaching THE CALL OF THE WILD

I have always loved teaching this book, but have not done so in years. This year we got new copies and the kids were excited to be the first readers! We decorated the class so it feels like we are in the arctic searching for gold. The kids put pictures of wolves, huskies and St.. Bernards all over the windows! It looks awesome and when we only have the white Christmas lights on, it feels like an Alaskan winter night. So far they like the book too. Didn't they do a good job setting the mood?

Working all weekend and not sewing! Editing is ok though!

I spent the past few weeks editing the book I told you about last time. I put all the corrections from the hard copy onto the manuscript on the computer this weekend. No sewing at all, but I worked
hard all weekend so it will be good to email this off to the author tonight! I feel like the characters belong to me now! I did stop at PQ after church for a few fat quarters to finish that winter wall hanging I started years ago! Instead of my sewing machine, the laptop is on my work table.

I did leave my little featherweight right next to the laptop just to remind me that sewing is coming in another day! 

Don't you love this embroidery piece?  I did it in a class at PQ about three years ago and this winter I am going to finish it.

This lovely fabric, which I got today, is for the little blocks that go around the embroidery.  It is going to be so nice!  The blue embroidery floss is for a snowman table runner I am starting tonight while I watch television.  I don't really love snowmen, but I have made a few things with them this year.  My eyes may be a little too tired to do anything but watch tv though.  REVENGE is on tonight!!  Can't wait!

Gorgeous fabrics from a road trip and new bunny wool penny rug

Last Saturday Kenny and I took a road trip to Connecticut to have lunch and visit some quilt shops.  I had to drop my embroidery machine off in the city to be serviced, so it made sense to just continue north a bit for a day away.  I got some nice fabrics for table runners. curtains, pillow cases and other little projects.  This cute bundle is so springlike that I had to have it.


Evelyn can only sleep on flannel pillowcases, so Ken and I picked out a few sweet fabrics that I can use for her.  Maybe I will make a new set once a month and give them to her just for fun. The polka dot fabrics will be the cuffs on them all.  She loves polka dots just like I do!

These will be pillowcases for Evelyn too.

This Grinch fabric was so fun that I had to get some.  Kenny will get Christmas pillowcases from these next year.

This week I did not have much sewing time so I made this little wool penny rug while we watched television at night.  I was asked to be an editor for a local writer this winter and accepted the job.  So, of course, I was busy editing at night after my full day of teaching.  It seemed like grading papers!!  The kids at school think it's cool that I am a professional editor on the side!  Guess that's worth the extra work.  I am done with the editing now and just have to apply the corrections to the manuscript this weekend.  The book is being published this spring.  Oh, and did I mention that my 150 students wrote essays this week too! LOL  I explained that they may have to wait a week for their grades.  They were ok with that though.

Another spring fabric bundle.  This might become a laundry bag for the bathroom.  I loved it so had to bring it home.

This weekend will be one mostly spent at home.  Tomorrow morning I have Weight Watchers (I lost two pounds so far) and then home to do a little cleaning.  After that it will be computer time to apply the edits to the book.  The deadline is Sunday night, so there is not much free time to play this weekend.  We started drama club at school last week and will be practicing every day until the show (February 8 and 9) so there will be less sewing time for a few weeks.  We are doing BEAUTY and the BEAST, and the kids are wonderful already.  I signed up for a few classes at Pieceful Quilting just to make sure I fit sewing time in at least a few evenings.  Hopefully there will be something fun to post tomorrow if I get some sewing in.  Happy Friday, or as I say at school, TGIF!! :)

Woolen snowman block of the month

Here is a last picture of my Christmas tree and my just finished snowman wool block. He will go up on the door after I take all the Christmas decorations away. I will probably start the big take-down tomorrow and do a little more each day. Taking it down is a little sad, isn't it? Hope your weekend is fun and relaxing!

Polar bear plunge New Years Day 2013

Today Deb, Evy and I took the Polar Bear Plunge at Cedar Beach.  It was very windy and cold there, of course!  We got onto the beach in our blankets and waited for the countdown.  See Evy smiling?  Not for long!  That water was like ice!

We all run in at the same time.  I wore my crocs this year because the water feels like ice, but they were pulled off by the waves right away!  Of course I was not going to search for them!  Bye, bye crocs!  Maybe they will wash up in Connecticut.

Deb fell in when she tried to run back to shore.  I rescued her and safely escorted her back to the car.  Since she always reminds me that every time we do adventurous things I manage to get her injured, I think I have wiped at least one offense clean today.  Let it be known though that this Polar Bear thing was on her bucket list, not mine! :)  Of course, Deb got cuts on her leg and was bleeding all the way home.  I was fine except for my feet which were frozen.  Evy said her insides were shaking!  I took her and Jon to Starbucks for breakfast afterwards.

Evy dove right in immediately like a jumping tuna!  She is already on the way back to shore.  Thankfully Jon was with us and had the car started and the heat on.  He took all the pictures too.  He did not do the plunge though.  Smart man!

Evy is trying to beat that old guy back to the cars.  Some people took off most of their clothes!  Crazy...

It was so invigorating we all decided to do it again!  Not really, I am not sure how this got to the end, but it was really the beginning.

We all agreed that today we feel very alive after this.  Hope your new year is off to a good, icy cold start too.