Frankendoggie

Our fluffy dog tried to run face first through a floor to ceiling window. Our windows are apparently original to our house - built in 1955 - which means he did not charge into safety glass. Poor, sliced up puppy! He has stitches on his face and both paws. He has to put up with being a conehead for a few weeks but eventually he'll be just fine. He'll even have a cool Harry Potter scar to show off to all his dog buddies.

In Which Translation Occurs (Sort Of)

Lilymania needs an update. Bad. I thought I'd go out and find a cool new template to celebrate three years here in the blogosphere. (Three years!) Of course I managed to find the perfect template - on a technical blogging page that's all in SPANISH. (I have always wanted to learn Spanish, but so far all I've managed to get is a little Russian, some French, and a smattering of Italian and Latin. The last two help a teeny bit with the Spanish but not nearly enough to translate a page about widgets and templates!) Then I noticed a handy dandy translator button off in the margin. (You see where this is going, right?) Who is in charge of this stuff?!! Here is a sample of what I got:

I think ofreceros free, as always, several designs of pagination so that you prune to unload them and to install them without problems… You have a little patience.

One forgot to me. . . You can see a sample working in the main page of my blog, right under the entrances or posts, you puncture Here.

Errr, yeah. That was helpful. (Not.) I particularly like the pruning to unload and the instruction to "puncture here". You have a little patience indeed! Well, I'm out of patience, friends. For the nonce, Lilymania remains the same. Oh - and Bet and I are off to Philly tomorrow to see Madonna in concert. Chances are I won't be blogging until we get back. (Shall I say "so much for NaBlo" once more? :P ) Peace.

In Which I Fail But Refuse To Worry Much

Ok - NaBlo is a flat out bust for me. I don't think I've hit the every other day mark, much less the every day mark. Bug turned 18 - EIGHTEEN - on Friday. Saturday I spent quilting - having borrowed a machine from a friend. Saturday night Ninja Princessa and I went to see High School Musical 3. Sunday I embellished a quilt journal page while I watched football. It was a FABULOUS day in football land. Yay for my Titans! Undefeated! Bet's Dolphins won; our Colts won and even though the Redskins lost to the Cowboys last night - I'm still coasting on some serious pigskin induced happiness. I'll try to post pictures tomorrow (of the birthday party and quilting - not so much of the football.) :D Peace.

You Know Your Daughter Loves You When...

The other night the Ninja Princessa had a dream that I died. Sure, some smarty pants psychologist could make a case for the Princessa working out her anger at her evil step-mother by killing her off in a dream but I choose to see it as proof positive that I am well and truly loved. I offer my evidence thusly:

Point 1 - Apparently my funeral was a huge success. Fabulous people (including none other than Lorelai and Rory Gilmore) came to say how sorry they were and to offer the Princessa their deepest sympathies. (Now you may not be the Gilmore Girls fanatic that we are so you may not realize what a testament that is to my beloved state - but take my word for it. When the hippest, most articulate and beautiful mother-daughter duo attends your funeral, it's a good sign.)

Point 2 - After my funeral, our whole family moved into the house of my dreams (the Twykham House in Stars Hollow) and the Princessa was sad that I was, you know, dead and couldn't enjoy it so she had my grave moved to the back yard. Yep - they took my dead, mouldering self with them!!

Point 3 - (And this is the kicker.) Not long after the move, I rose from the grave and shuffled back into their lives - ZOMBIFIED!! Me. A zombie! How utterly cool is that?! (You do have to get past the relentless, brain eating, putridness of the zombie archetype and move on to the "wow, my children think about zombies more than they think about anything else in the whole wide world" aspect to see this as a sign of love and devotion, but I am there.) Remembered, resurrected (reanimated, whatever) - I am SO loved. The undead step-mom. There is no higher pinnacle of my children's esteem to which I aspire. Just saying.

Frustrations In Fabric

I took my pile o'charm squares (that I showed a couple of posts ago) and sorted the browns and neutrals into a "coffee and cream" theme. What else would you do for a friend you call C is for Coffee? But it was too blah. I needed something to pop it out. Something I had a lot of. (Turns out that not as many people participated in the brown and neutral months of the swap. Without another color C is for Coffee's lap quilt wasn't going to cover her lap!) I thought about what our coffee dates are about - how we celebrate our families and life triumphs together, how we dream, how we chase the blues away by being friends and talking. As I was thinking my hands were sorting out the aqua and blue squares. Hmmm. Ok. That looks kind of cool! Then I started making nine patches. I love nine patches the way I love log cabin squares and flying geese. They are the epitome of the traditional quilt look in my mind, but you can do so many interesting things with them.

Here is a fantastic quilt blog I found where I got the idea for what to do with my nine patches (i.e. how to slice them and reassemble them). She does a MUCH better job of the step by step documentation. I got so excited about cutting my squares up that I forgot to take pictures.
<---Here is the layout I used. It's sort of random but it's also symmetrical. So far so good! (Well except that several of the charm squares I most wanted to use were 5 3/4 " instead of 6". A couple were bizarrely cut on the bias instead of square on the weave. I guess whoever was cutting lined her ruler up with the print and not the actual fabric? That is the problem with a charm square swap. Not everyone is on the same page. One of the ancient ladies in my guild swap cut all of her charm squares with scissors and templates. Forty squares every month. It probably took her the whole month to do it! She doesn't trust rotary cutters. We all have our own quirks, don't we. I try to be compassionate about it. Those squares I wanted to use so badly? I think I'll make a coaster out of one of them to give with the quilt.)
This is what the top looks like all assembled and hanging on my makeshift (<---ha ha ha - the first time I typed that I left out the 'f'!) design wall. (Please ignore the half built glass wall - it's a work in progress too.) I bought a very soft (plush even) backing fabric (totally forgetting that it wouldn't be quite so snuggly when it was quilted - er, still working on that.) I got the whole thing layered and sandwiched. (<-- Which I do with a Dritz basting gun because safety pins are too laborious to put in and obnoxious to take out in the middle of machine quilting; I gouge myself when I try to use straight pins the way Ruth McDowell does; and hand basting is NEVER going to make sense to me.)

I made a few muslin squares to work out my coffee mugs and cup designs on. I limbered up my fingers on those and threw in some bonus practice stippling. I laid out my pictures, made my chalk marks. Perfect. Everything was set. I was ready to machine quilt! I love machine quilting. Rather, I did. This morning it has been a mess of broken threads, tangled bobbin stitches, and deformed shapes that don't even qualify for my beloved "folk art" label. I am so frustrated I want to scream. It is probably something to do with my bobbin tension, but I'm sick of trying to figure it out and too scared to muck about with it too much for fear of ruining all the adjustments. I am out of patience for the ratio of three minutes of stitching to 8 minutes of detangling and rethreading. I'm tired of switching thread colors based on which one works best in the machine instead of which one works best with the design. Grrrrr. I'm taking a coffee break to try to get in better space. Do you think they make a "Zen Patience" flavor creamer?

Thank You Veterans!

I am grateful for anyone who has ever served our country. But I'm also whiny because the Princessa and I were counting on our Netflixed disk arriving today - which it did not because there is no mail service. Instead I went fabric shopping. I have five - count them - FIVE quilt projects I'm in the middle of. Er, well to be honest, one is at the middle stage the other four are at the "Oooh this fabric is pretty and fun" stage. One is getting sandwiched and chalked tomorrow. <--That is assuming I can lift my arms tomorrow. Bet, Linus, and I are doing this crazy thing called the 100 Push Ups Challenge and I did 46 of those suckers today. Ouchie kabowchie. However sore, floppy, noodle arms or not - this quilt is the one that has to be completely done, washed, dried, and wrapped up with a pretty bow next week for one of my dearest pals C is for Coffee. Send me some good quilty vibes! Peace.

It Is SUCH A Monday

I have a whole list of things I must do today - important things - boring things. I don't want to do any of them. I am incredibly hungry. We have plenty of food in the house - boring food. I don't want to eat any of it. What I want is to ignore the world, read my book, and eat sushi for breakfast. Sigh. If anyone needs me I'll be at either the pharmacy, dry cleaner's or the bank. A Monday can only last so long, right?

In Case You Were Wondering

If you hear someone in Lilyville say something very, very weird, you can almost always blame it on Mr. Izzard. Hence my saying "Cheese blat, cheese blat...LARGE hair net!" to my family recently.

Charming Day

I have a quilt to make for my dear friend (C is for Coffee) whose birthday is right after Thanksgiving. I've wanted to do one for her for years and this is the year. She and her family are driving 500 miles (and bringing three of our children with her) for the holiday. I want to do something extra special for her. The parameters are that I have two weeks and must not buy any new fabric. Hmmmmm. Here's where the pile o'charm squares comes in!

Also on today's slate - a haircut. First time since June! Exciting stuff. Still, a post's a post, right? Peace.

Daily, Meaning What Exactly?

Well dang! Totally rocky start. Every day was supposed to be every day? I've double blown it - starting late AND skipping. But it's either go on imperfectly or quit, right? Year Two - and still flawed. Maybe third time's the charm for me and NaBlo. Still, rather than quit, here's some catch up:

Rock the Vote: Election Day was long - about a 22 hour day for me. I worked at the precinct and LOVED every minute of it. We had an unbelievable 73% turnout. (That is roughly twice our usual turnout for a general election.) After our polls closed and we got our precinct reported and squared away, it was off to a returns party. I have said it elsewhere but I'll say a bit of it here. I am energized and hopeful and so grateful for the outcome in my state's and our country's presidential elections. I also completely understand that there are those who feel otherwise. I was a blue girl in a deeply red state for far too long not to empathize with the fearful and disappointed looks on some of the faces around me. I will do what I can (little though that feels like) not to fuel any rancor from partisan divides. I hope that showing this cute picture of the Ninja Princessa and her friend Ki in their Election Night gear will fall on the side of the line that is "tasteful celebrating" not "gloating". (Although since Ki kept referring to her temporary tattoo as a "tramp stamp", I'm not sure the word tasteful applies.)

Remember, remember the fifth of November: Yesterday I spent the day trying to catch up on sleep and household chores. We had a family movie night watching, what else but V for Vendetta.

On the slate for today: I'm still playing catch up! I had meant this post to be quick and do something fun with my profile but five interruptions later I'm thinking my plans were overly ambitious. There's always tomorrow though, eh? Peace.

PS - Hello to my NaBlo friends from last year! Good to be back and can't wait to get a chance to visit everyone!

November First Already?

I had still have plans - big plans for NaBlo this year - like maybe updating my blog, making new friends, filling in some significant blanks! I know, I know - I'm two days late but I was in Appalachia where there was zero connectivity (or cell phone service or fast food - not that I missed the fast food.) I'm just going to blog for a whole month starting today. I'm not in it for the prizes anyway. But... I'm on my way to help set up our precinct for Election Day and tomorrow I'll be there for 14+ hours. Sigh. Why is NaBloPoMo in November? Oh, wait. It's not. It's all year long now, isn't it. Dang - no excuses. How about this - missed start, a drive by blogging on day two - I'll be a less-than-perfect NaBlo person in all my glory. Peace!