Deer,Dear

This is the view from Ms. CCCat's home in San Marcos. Texas. Her home here has COWS in the front yard! This is the view through the front door! I'm such a city girl! Between the deer and the scorpion, I practically had a full camera!

Sushi Night

Edit!!! For some reason I wrote this but never posted it! It was worth remembering so I'm posting it now.

This past weekend we celebrated Mom & Dad's day, and my birthday. All celebrations are either past or in the future! This was when Ms. A and C2 were available to come here, so we celebrate! For some reason, I got it in my head that we were going to make sushi. We had so much fun! We were all in the kitchen tripping over one another, getting in each others way and hollering and whining and laughing the entire time. Here is the fun in photos....




Some of the prepped stuff!

My first attempt at sushi rice...not toooo bad.

I made the most wonderful green beans. I love the hot beans at chinese buffets. I microwaved them first and then stir fried in a combo of oil and hot oil with pepper flakes! MMMMMM!!!



C2 loves to cook and brought the stuff to make tempura asparagus. After checkin' out my fridge he found jalapanos, cream cheese and cheddar cheese. He had me stuff them and then he tempura battered and fried. Delicious chinese food with a south texas flair!

DH didn't want to be left out of the picture fun so he POSED for this shot. Exactly WHAT is he cutting on the board?????

C2, his tempura mess and final product! It tasted great but was a messy little cooking project!

Mr. Fancypants sushi roll. He put hot pepper flakes inside his.

C2 showing us how to make a roll....or is he really just compensating for the peanut gallery? Here they are while (read C2 and I) did the prep work!! LOL!!! They were like the Chicken Little story..... they waited until the prep work was done and then swooped in to make and eat the sushi!!!! Ok, let's make it politically correct....they were the rooting section!

Have YOU ever seen a scorpion?

I can now proudly say, I have. Wellllll I can afford to be cavalier because the scorpion is smushed somewhere in San Marcos, Texas!! I spent the week with CCCat in San Marcos. I was repacking my suitcase. Both the suitcase & I were sitting on the floor. I my black pants up, from INSIDE my suitcase and, being the quilter I am, noticed a bunch of camel colored thread on the pants. Luckily I stopped to take a second look at the blob because IT MOVED! I threw those pants as fast as I could!!!! I was frozen, just frozen in my place! My GOSH, A SCORPION, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

I'm just a transplanted northerner who was aghast to discover that cockroaches go into ALL houses in Texas not just the disqusting ones. I suddenly became a whirlwind of activity when I realized that at any moment the DEADLY scorpion could skeedaddle out of my pant leg and come and get me. I jumped up and franticlly looked for something to move my pants. I found a curtain rod. A-hah! The right criteria....long enough for me to jump away if the scorpion decided to take aim at me. I picked those pants up with the curtain rod like they were .....well, like they were harboring a scorpion! I took it out side and THREW the pants. That scorpion didn't even bother to get off of my pants.


It musta been taunting me. I had to use the curtain rod to prod the dumb thing and get it off of not only my pants but the porch. THAT, IT DIDN'T LIKE! Up came its tail and it came CHARGING AT ME! Oh, did I mention that I was barefooted? Also I was certain the thing was the size of a small alligator and didn't really want to smash it. PLUS I WAS CERTAIN THAT SCORPION BITES KILL! Finally I got it off the porch and in the flowerbed. When CCCat came home from her walk and I told her of my ordeal, she wasn't' even phased! She chuckled at me. I was being stalked by a killer and she laughed at me. (We actually found a second scorpion in the doorway....or was it the first one coming back for me....She just picked up a shoe and WAP! took care of it!) Ok, ok, so she told me that it stings like a wasp. That you don't actually die from the scorpions here but instead writhe in pain. But I had been convinced that if it had bit me, I would have needed IMMEDIATE medical attention. In actuality, if it had bit me while she was gone, in my state of ignorance and gross-outedness, I would have called 911! (Boy that would have been fun. CCCat laughing at me and the entire San Marcos Emergency Services having a chuckle at my expense!) Not only did Mrs. CCCAt laugh at me, so did MR. CCCat! Sure, they are south Texaners....they have weathered hurricanes, cockroaches, cows getting into their backyard, and scorpions! I have experience with snails and ladybugs! They got a really big kick out of my ORDEAL. Luckily, Mrs. S & Ms. A. understood my trauma! {{{{{bleeccchhhh}}}}}}} The next time I visit with Ms. CCCat in San Marcos, it's shoes, clothes hangers and NO PICKING STRAY THREADS!

The coolest picture

We worked really hard to plant butterfly friendly plants at work. We succeeded. We have a constant display of monarch butterflies. About a month ago a monarch caterpillar made it's cocoon on the lock of the door to my classroom! Monarch cocoons are spectacular. They have that line of black with gold flecks. Just beautiful. Even with all of the coming and going the butterfly managed to live. We happened to be entering the room and saw the butterfly drying its wings after it emerged. It was a very exciting time for both the children....and their teacher!

A finish!

I fnally finished this locker hooking project. It only required 2 rows of white and it took me months to get back to it. I was planning on making it much bigger but cut it down as I figure done is better than undone! I like the way it looks but because I wimped and made it smaller, it is not too useful. Oh well!

Chickens

I am finally making my chicken curtains...or should I say panels. I got this pattern from the most awesome site. I love everything she designs. I don't know that the heart yo- yo will stay a part of the panel but I was just testing the overlap. There is something about this panel that is bothering me and I think it's the background. It's ho-hum.

The applique was done in the herky jerky fashion. I need a bit more practice. The style will go well with the chickens as it looks like chicken scratch!

Dad's like toys too!

I bought DH something that is fun and useful....a hand held bug zapper! You put in AA batteries and go to town on the annoying flying critters that attack! DH was grilling and decided to put it to good use! When the bugs don't come to you....go to the bugs!! This thing really does work. He was just amusing himself while waiting for dinner to cook but all I could hear was zzzap, zzzzap, zzzzzap!

Success! AND dinner!

My new toy... AKA birthday present

DH took me shopping. After we bought my requested new toy, he told me "Happy Birthday. Unless I think of anything better between now and your birthday, this is your present." Amusing huh! Once the words Happy Birthday left his lips he put the thought right out of his head! LOL!! My actual BD isn't until next week but we seem to have been celebrating it for a couple of weeks now!

I love, love this camera (Olympus Stylus 7000). Perhaps I never knew what my other camera could do, but this one has so many functions that I'm having to learn how to use it. Perhaps it will lead me to posting more often!a>

These two pictures were taken about 1" away from the fabric.

This was about 2 " away

This one was just taken as close as I could get and still keep the picture in frame. I

I'm thinking there will be some incredible quilting photos coming soon.....

What a great tradition!

REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
(author? photographer? I don't know but don't want trouble so giving credit.)

This is a great tradition!!! The only thing is, once the get done where do they go from there??

Minkee Monday

Poor thing doesn't like the cage. She meows like a baby...it's so pitiful. I called Mrs. S and she thought I had a baby in the car! Ms. Minkee was only off to have a "pedicure." I had to break down and pay someone as I couldn't corral a friend to cut her nails and they were LONG! It makes me nauseous to cut nails!!

Whoda thunk it?

The view from my house looking left......
The view from my house looking right.....

Both gas hogs, both ugly, neither one will get in a wreck and hear the other guy say they didn't see them!

My machine Does have an ON button!

Edit! I photographed all of my pillowcases UPSIDE DOWN! SHEESH!

If you remember correctly, DH, ahem.... hates cats..... Naturally, I had to play on this uhmm...hatred. Yeah, that's what he claims it is... hatred. I got these silly fabrics at Joanns. They are Robert Kaufman and I got them on clearance for under $4/yard! Ever since we got Minkee, DH has been saying things like "Your riffin' raffin' cat," or "I hate cats! " ect. At the same time, he worries incessantly about the doors being open too long, the blinds being down too late in the morning, ect, ect, ect. You get the picture. Big man of the house can't be in love with the widdle bitty fwuffy kitty! So, when I saw this fabric I HAD to buy it. He was out of town while I made them. He cracked up when he finally saw them. Even his body pillow matches! He calls me the cat lady.....WE know better! Cat Man should be HIS new pseudonym!

Low Flying Aircraft?

This is the funniest sign I've ever seen. It is on the way to Ms. CCCat's house. As you can see there is a whole lotta field on either side of the road. There is also the bay. The Naval Airstation practice field is to the left of the road...hence the reason for the sign but imagine how low the planes must get in order to need a sign as a warning??!!

Longarm doodles

Just having fun one day. CCCat is waaaay better than me on feathers! I like wonky things and she is fabulous at symmetrical, "looks like hand quilting" patterns.

Minkee Monday

It's the paw reaching out over the arm of the chair that cracks me up. Who woulda thunk it that this little annoying, noisy, wake us up at 5 am, creature would have captured us so completely?!

(that is my double delight, cowboy quilt in the background)

Sewing?

I've been busy. I've been creative. I've just not been sewing. I have the "make my front yard look more like fine people who care live inside rather than ragamuffins" syndrome! I am trying to take an uninspiring, overgrown space.............. and turn it into something beautiful. Seeing as how most of my front yard is weeds, this is not an easy undertaking! We had a raised bed built and I've been filling it with bushes and flowers. Now add to all of that fun that it has been blazing hot with whipping winds....well, I'm tired at the end of the day. I will post an "after" photo soon.

I did make zipper purses for my girls. I followed the directions from a taped Sewing with Nancy tv show. There was only one problem. Her samples we inconsistent. One had the zipper starting in one direction and the other in the opposite direction. If you followed the wrong set of directions you ended up with a purse that opened from the bottom. Guess which one I chose to follow on the first bag?! Plus I must have used thin ribbon or something because mine came out bumpy and lumpy instead of smooth like the one in the youtube video. I was so in love with my finished products that I didn't even bother to take a picture!!

School is out in a few short workdays and I will be able to sew and create to my hearts desire. By then it will be too unbearably hot to work in the yard and I'll be snuggled inside with the air conditioner for the summer!

Alive and Kicking

Yes, I've been absent.....again! I have been working and.....yard work!



Swine flu in the district shut down our school for a few days....not enough days as the CDC changed their rules right in the middle of my unplanned vacation!!! : ( I'm counting the days until vacation as I'm not sure if I can remain civil at my job much longer! Two months off is going to be JUST long enough for me to MAYBE regroup and be ready for the fall.

Yard work is keeping me away from the sewing machine. I hope to have something to show sewing wise, soon! I did stitch a pillow for my brother but forgot to photograph it. Boring post today. Hopefully will pick up in readabilty once school is out!

Minkee Monday

This is one silly, schedule oriented cat! Every night DH comes home from work and has a cigar on the patio. The cat likes to join him. I think she feels like she is free! It is actually rather sad to see her watching the birds and squirrels. However, as soon as he gets in door she runs to the patio door and waits.
Here she is looking at him like "Hey! What takes you so long buster? Leave in the contacts, the heck with charging your phone, we need to get outside!" Sometimes, if he takes too long, she will meow at him in frustration.