Shopping in your pj's

I am a die hard devotee of black Friday shopping. I love it. I search the web and scour the ads before hand, planning out my trip. I always get the item that I want and the price I want to pay. Can I just say again, I love it. However this year, I've been doing quite a bit of shopping before hand from my laptop in my p.j.'s and I have to admit. I kind of like it. That was until this morning when I went to purchase coats for my children from Sears. What a frustrating and fruitless experience that was. I've always loved Sears, but I'm going to have to rethink our relationship. On the website the coats I wanted were advertised as 60% off and the price was $38.00/each. An incredible deal, but when I put them in my cart and went to check out the price had risen to $47.50/each. WTF! So I call (all the way to the Philippines, apparently ) thinking this was a computer issue. They see the same thing I do, two prices. But, here's the kicker, they tell me too bad, the price in the cart is the price. Can you believe it? I couldn't. Needless to say I didn't buy the coats. I'll check around and I'll find them at a price I'm willing to pay and now when I look into the empty aisles at my local Sears in the mall, I now understand just why that might be. Sears, you might want to do a better job in the future.

Holy Smokes....has it been that long?

I haven't blogged in ages, but I'm happy to report that summer school is finished and I rocked it with an "A". Woohoo! I have two weeks off and I'm ecstatic to be tackling some long neglected UFO's. First I'll be finishing up the binding on a string quilt. It was suppose to be for one of the ladies in the office at my son's school, but she quit over the summer so I'll just tuck it away until I decide who to give it to. I need to pin basting Shane's quilt. It's so hard to come up with a quilt for a teenage boy. What to do, what to do? Oh I know, 5 inch solid squares. Boring, but perfectly appropriate for him. I also had planned the zig zag skirt for Moda Bake shop for O as a back to school outfit. Let's just say I didn't get that done, but now I have time. I already have the front done, and just need to finish the back. I have blocks for two flickr bees to finish. And then I want to start working on some Christmas gifts. I've really missed getting to stitch and I'm glad to be back in front of my machine. I'll post some pix of the completed project just as soon as I can.

Matriculation

After many years out of academia, I have returned to school in pursuit of my master's degree. It's been something I had wanted to do for a long time, but as a mother of young children I wanted to wait until they were all in school. I'm taking a nontraditional approach too. It's actually the scariest part to me since I'm somewhat of a ludite when it comes to technology. I will be completing my degree online. I didn't see how with working fulltime and being a mom attending classes on campus would be feasible. I'm so excited about the emergence of online programs. It's been two weeks and I have to say it's a lot harder than a brick and mortar school. I probably spend about 2-3 hours/day working on assignments. I never spent that much time in undergrad. I'm really excited about the opportunities that grad school will offer. As a nurse I feel like the ability to physically provide bedside care is limited. I'm getting older and I'm very interested in community health. I'll keep you posted on my progress, but so far, so good!

A fitting quilt for the 4th

I may have mentioned that as a quilter I'm not very precise. I love the free form style of the Gee's Bend quilters. A little bit wonky is good to me, a lot wonky is even better. Anyways I love a wonky star. I've been participating in online quilting bees for the past 2 years and have really enjoyed them. They've definitely challenged me and forced me to step outside my box. However, when it was my turn I quickly returned to what I love. I asked for a wonky star. I had seen them first in this book and fell quickly in love. I used a great tutorial from here. I provided all the fabric from my stash. I used shades of teal, blue and aqua and Joann's quilter's cotton in natural for the background. The block are 12" finished. I bound the quilt in robin egg blue kona and free motion quilted it myself on my Brother pq1500. That brother has been the best money I've spent. I have already quilted about 5 quilts on it and it works like a dream! I love the pieced back and the reversed star adds a bit of interest. I did an all over meandering stitch to quilt it and I love how turned out, just the right amount of crinkles when washed.
What do you think? Does it make you think of the 4th of July? I call it Starry Dreams.

Now that's good tv!

Are you watching it? I'm talking about "The Killing" on AMC. It's so freaking good! I have absolutely no clue who killed Rosie Larson or why. Every Sunday I'm glued to my tv trying to figure it out. I even DVR it so I can watch it again. It's like a slow burn the way the plot is unfolding. The characters are so intriguing too. What's with Sarah? All this time I thought Reggie was her sister or something. You could have pushed me over with a feather. Only two more episodes left and still I'm clueless. If you're not watching it, you should be.

Belated Gift

I always have the best intention when it comes to making items to gift. I always, always start off with a bang, but somehow I end up with the day approaching (or in the case, passing me by) and either in a mad panic to finish or resigning myself to being a late gift giver. Luckily I must have inherited this trait from my mother as every occasion entitles her sending her package express so that it arrives on time. As this is for her, I'm sure she will forgive me. I posted it to her on Saturday and it should be on her doorstep by Tuesday. It was meant to be for Mother's Day.
She likes autumnal colors and I thought this Island Batik jelly roll seemed to capture that feeling very well. The pattern is essentially Cluck Cluck Sew's Basket Case pattern. I say essentially because beyond her general layout I didn't follow her directions. I probably should have, but I kind of like Gee's Bend wonky style in my quilting so I really like the many imperfections. I hope my Mom likes it.

Summer Slim Down!

Like many of you I've struggled with my weight for many years beginning in earnest in my early 30's. Lately I've really fallen off the wagon and been run over by it. I'm trying hard to regain some control and get a routine going. My dear friend Linda is starting a summer slim down and she's so inspiring that I have decide to stop making excuses and get to work. It's really helpful to have someone who's on a similar journey to talk to about your challenges.
I'm excited to get started. I have a healthy eating plan, a workout plan that's not dependent upon me getting to the gym and offers lots of variety. I'm very motivated. I'd like to lose 30 lbs. by my next birthday. It's a very reasonable goal and only calls for me to lose 1-2lbs/week. I'll be checking in here, with Linda and with online support groups regularly to help me stay on track.
Do you have any summer fitness goals?