Open Letter

Dear Cashier at the local craft store,

I am not a huge fan of school projects and, I guess, you saw that in my eyes yesterday. I was the one who bought two pieces of foam core, a coupe of bunches of moss, ribbons, adhesive, and other classic 'school-project' craft stuff. Maybe I rolled my eyes one too many times while mentioning the outrageous cost of school projects and that gave away my exasperation. I don't know.

To be honest, I wasn't really kidding when I told you I wanted everything on sale. I say that. A lot. Everywhere I go.

The thing is, no one ever takes me seriously. No one except you, my new bff. You rang up every single item at half price. We both know it was not all on sale; we had discussed it prior to your touching the register.

Maybe you were mad at your boss or the company for which you work. Maybe you felt sorry for me, knowing the daunting task ahead. Regardless of the reason, what you did for me did not go unnoticed. I did not make a fuss or even say a word. I silently watched you and silently thanked you. I truly appreciate what you did.

Thank you again!

Birthday Surprises

I love surprises. Well, not all surprises. I mean, I don't like bad surprises. But good ones? I love those kind of surprises!

Yesterday, my dear friend Nichole phoned me to tell me she'd be picking me up at 9:15am and to be ready. That is all she said (besides "Happy Birthday!" Then, she gave me crap about being old, which sucks because I'm 11 years older than she, so I have no ammunition!).

This morning, Nichole (and her sister, Jen) came to pick me up and took me to a lovely breakfast at our favorite breakfast place in town. The food was, as usual, wonderful. The company was great, too. I'd met Nichole's sister before, but this was our first opportunity to really chat. She's fascinating and lovely; a beautiful young woman. The Boy was with us as well; he had gotten sick on Wednesday morning (which is a whole 'nother post that I'm working on) so had to stay home from school today.

After breakfast, we headed out for destinations unknown (to me, at least). We ended up at a local quilt shop! Nichole had arranged for us to come in and sign-up for and purchase supplies for a beginning quilt class!! What an amazing gift!

You see, Nichole and I have been talking about how much we each want to make a quilt, but neither of us has taken even the first step in that direction. My love for quilts began way, way back in high school when I went to see a local production of Quilters, which I don't recall being a musical, but apparently is.

My fascination with quilts went into a dormant period for a number of years after that. Then, in 1999, I had a neighbor who was a very talented and prolific quilter. She tried to get me to make a quilt, but I resisted. I had two rather small kids at the time and the idea of spending that much time on a single project seemed daunting at best. Still, I loved to watch her work and to look at her fabric stash.

Either that same year or the following year, my mom told me about Jennifer Chiaverini's book, The Quilter's Apprentice. I fell in love. I've read all the Elm Creek novels and, after befriending Nichole, suggested them to her. Her answer was always the same. "OK - I'll read them...someday!" Finally, about two years ago, I went and bought the first three novels and mailed them to Nichole. Having no excuse not to read them, she promptly devoured them...and many more after that.

Now, we are both going to realize our dream of making a quilt. Nichole's dream culminates with her HAND QUILTING a piece. Mine is not so ambitious! We had a blast picking out fabric for our projects. Choosing fabric is WAY harder than one might think (well - for me, anyway!). I'm excited about what I've chosen (most of which is from the Basic Grey collection).

I'll be sure to post the finished project mid-November, when I have it.

A job well done...mostly

I'm kind of a handy kind of person. I like to make things and do things. In the last house we owned, The Husband and I remodeled nearly every room, and we did it ourselves. The biggie was, of course, the kitchen, complete with new flooring, cabinets, counter top, and paint. Actually, we did not install the counter top; we had it done because we were afraid we'd cut the sink hole incorrectly!

When my friend Nichole asked me to help her out with a little project, I jumped at the opportunity. It was a total win-win for me. First, I got to spend time with my dear friend (we are both so busy all the time, we rarely have long spans of quality time together), and second, I got to get dirty with a project.

The project for the day was sanding and oiling teak furniture. The task was a bit larger than we had anticipated, but we tackled it with gusto. Here is one of the chairs before we began:



The first step was to remove the seat and sand the chair. There wasn't much need to sand the seat because Nichole uses cushions on them, so they are rarely exposed to the elements.

Once sanded, the chair looked like this (except it's not a great picture and you can't see how pretty it is). I took the photos with my iPhone, so they're not the greatest quality. It was also sunny, which made it hard to see the screen of my phone when I took the photo.


From here, I took a damp rag and washed the chair. I let it dry and began the task of oiling. I was going to rub it on, but Nichole said using the paintbrush made for a much easier time. So, I got the brush and went to work. Talk about instant gratification!!

The chair is beautiful! There were eight chairs to do and one table. We worked most of the school day (I had to be home to get the kids off the bus). When we quit, around 2:45, we had completed 5 of the chairs, sanded the sixth, and Nichole had started sanding the seventh. No one had touched the table. Not sure it will all get finished in time for her soiree this weekend, but we gave it our all.

Christmas in...JUNE

Yesterday, as I was wasting time playing on the computer diligently working, the phone rang. It was the owner of one of the local paint-your-own-pottery places. I immediately had a flashback to October when, at The Girl's birthday party, I ordered this ADORABLE personalized snowman. Immediately, I asked the owner if she was calling to collect rent for said snowman that I've yet to even SEE much less paint! What can I say? I'm forgetful! Actually, I *did* try to go paint him once but it was a Monday and the shop is not open on Mondays.

So...today, I went to paint Mr. Snowman. He's really cute - here is a picture of someone else's that I just found online: Mr. Snowman. The Boy and The Girl had 4" tiles to paint for a school fundraiser, so I was set - we all had something to do. The snowman is pretty big but didn't look like he'd need a whole lot of painting. WRONG!! The Boy and The Girl were finished with their projects in about 30 minutes. I had barely painted the nose and eyes! This little guy has gloves, a scarf, a hat, and a lantern, not to mention his buttons! WHOA! I managed to get him about half-way painted before I gave up for the day. I was too tired from constantly telling both kids to STOP running through the ceramics shop and to STOP picking things up!

I think my next trip will be sans kids. I'll try to take a photo or two as well. Like I said, he's a cutie pie!