Pumpkins for Cathey

This post goes out to wish Cathey a HaPPy BloGoVErSaRy!

Hop on over to Cathey's blog, Pumpkin Patch & Co.,  and wish her a Happy Blogoversary!   http://pumpkinpatchandco.blogspot.com/   In addition to be a great stitcher, great wife and mom, she has drive, determination and unbelievable spirit.   See Daffycat's post for more information about Cathey.  These pumpkins are for you Cathey along with congrats on your blogoversary.

We bloggers are there for each other.   And we crafters just get each other.   Put that together and we are just awesome.

Let's our sent prayers to Cathey for her fight against cancer.  

Sad News

I learned early yesterday morning that the daughter of a friend had been murdered.   There are no words that come near to offer any kind of solice to a parent who looses a child.  Michelle (mom) lives in New Jersey and Britt was living in Texas so details are few and far between.  It matters not the circumstances when a young life is gone too soon.   In my minds eye I can see her running through the yard as a child with the white-blond tiny little pony tails and her blue blue eyes.  Michelle is on her way by car to Texas - couldn't get a flight fast enough and she just couldn't sit by and wait until she did.    This is a trip no parent should have to make.  None of us holds the magic ticket for unending tomorrows so hug your loved ones while you still have them.   My thoughts and prayers are for all her family during this heart-wrenching time. 

Brittana Fletcher

RIP

9/24/1980   ~~  11/13/2012

A bit of progress

I may not have been posting on my own site but have been managing quick 'drive-bys' on all your blogs.   I love all the creativity I am seeing and catching up on everyone's progress.   Hopefully soon I will be able to post more often as well as comment instead of just quick reads.  So anyway.............

This morning I had a special breakfast with my BF Debbie and her grand-daughter Kayla. I've have know Kayla since she was born and I can't believe how quickly she has grown. She has been wanting to go out with her grandmom and me for quite sometime and it has just been a crazy time juggling calendars - mainly mine. We talked about school and Girl Scouts and little sisters and little brothers and boys and dances.  I think the most important thing one can do with their life is to touch the life of a child. I am so very glad we finally got our big girl morning out together. It was a fun breakfast at iHop!

Riding home from breakfast, I pulled over and pulled out my camera. I thought the autumn leaf color had peaked but received a sensory surprise after rounding a bend. The camera and web don't do the array of colors justice. Just love Mother Nature and what she does.....

On the stitching front, I have managed to eek out a few stitches on La-D-Da's ABCD. This is the traveling pattern that I am part of and I certainly am not going to finish as quickly as some others did. I am enjoying it and it is a fast stitch, it is just taking that time to sit and stitch. Since I now go to the gym before work it eliminated my before work stitching hour but 6 lbs lighter and jeans a little more comforable, I guess the trade off is worth it.

This week was a friend from WW (Weight Watchers) is having a birthday and I constructed her a diet friendly cake. Rice cake layers, with a layer of peanut butter cups for the non-dieters, WW candies, Extra gum in Apple Pie and Strawberry Shortcake flavor (really yummy), and sugar-free cookies. Most important, she liked it and we all stayed within our points.

Looking at it just now, I could really go for 1 serving/3 lemon cookies/4 pt. treat.

Idea to execution!

UPDATED WITH DONNA's REACTION and PHOTOS/SEE BELOW  -  I get these ideas in my head and can visualize the final product but somewhere between thinking up my brilliant gem of creativity and the final product things can go awry.    My friend is retiring about 35 years service.  Technicalities and being politically correct has caused management to determine that we no longer have individual retirement parties but quarterly hold joint retirement dinners for the retirees.   I get it.   If you do for one, you need to do for all.  No matter, but I kind of was feeling bad that 35 years and nothing!   So my wheels started turning and concocted up a plan.   I created a GIANT retirement card - seriously 24 by 36! and send out an email to managers and supervisors to spread the word and get folks to sign and offer their well wishes.  I ordered lunch for all the admins on the floor, with a little extra for the officers of course and got permission to use the Employee Recognition Account to pay for it.   I ordered a giant sheet cake to share with all the Company tomorrow afternoon as we wish her well. 

Now the crazy creative ideas start to come. I get this idea to make a beauty queen sash and add 'badges' that commemorate her career. Simple right?   I searched clip art and printed out all these little images that reflected a job task - Cake Serving, Phone Manners, Mastering Planners,  Foreign Travel, Veterinary Sciences - as an Administrative Assistant the tasks are many and diverse and we all joke there are a lot that fall under the ...."and any other duties as assigned"...part of the job description. 

And I threw in a few fun ones, like "Nascar Driver" to reflect her love of speed and "Queen of the Machine" for her love of  casinos.    Now came the time to attach them to the sash I made.   I tried hand sewing and they got all wonky.  Not to mention I had the flashback of sewing all the patches on kids jackets and uniforms til my fingers bleed.  I tried using glue dots and they were not attached securly.   I even tried stapling which worked but the back was too rough and there were too many sharp edges.  

I ended up machine sewing them on.   It may not be the neatest but it is the more secure.  Although it didn't turn out as professional as I imagined it, I hope it will be something to make Donna's last day fun and memorable.

I will surprise Donna in the morning, with the giant card, flowers and balloons and her sash of achievements not to mention lunch and dessert.

UPDATED!!

So here is how the day started, save my running around like my hair was on fire......Donna arrived to flowers and balloons.  She was then presented with her sash which she donned immediately.   She looked at all her badges and roared with laughter...except for the badge "Veterinary Sciences".    She couldn't figure it out.    Donna, really?    Your boss is a horse-woman!  You have ordered hay, called the vet for colic, arranged fundraisers for the wolf rescue compound your boss has on her property and even had the unenvyable task of getting the guys to take the frontend loader down from work to your boss's farm when she put her bull down and they needed the frontend loader to dig a hole.  Really Donna - Veterinary Sciences badge was EARNED.  So continue - we got her to the lunchroom on a ruse and she was surprised the whole floor was there to cheer her - about 25 of us.   Midafternoon, we had a giant sheet cake and I sent a network email out to the whole company to come eat cake and wish her well.   And while she was chatting away, we tied a dozen soda cans to her car and painted her windows with "good luck" and "happy retirement".    We all helped her  load her car and she discovered our mayhem.   Just as the street crew was getting out for the day, she found the cans and we convinced her she needed to cruise the parking lot.   It didn't take much convincing and off she went with lights flashing and horn honking and cans dragging.   We laughed so hard our sides hurt.   She daintily parked and back inside we all went as if nothing happened.    We have it on good authority that dispatch has the surveillance video from the parking lot camera along with that video of Donna the day she walked down the Executive Hall with her dress tucked in her pantyhose.    We have teased Donna about all the "Marlboro" freebies she comes in with and her girlfried threatens she will arrange her funeral with Marlboro apparel and Donna said she has to include her sash and badges too.  

  I must say, I have to give myself a pat on the back.   Donna had a great last day at the office and I wish her well in her retirement.   We already have a dinner date on the calendar.   Hopefully I will get some photos off the network at the office and can post them....silly me with my getting everything together, I forgot my camera this morning.

Rah rah rah!

Three cheers - not much stitching going on but need to give three cheers out --



This scene should have my sister with scissors cutting my hair!
Oops!  I hope I don't my sister laugh and hurt her incision.

 First and foremost, the staff at Virtua Hospital/Marlton where my sister had surgery this past Wednesday....they were so attentive to us, keeping us informed during the surgery, offering support and making us feel welcomed.  Not to mention the Pre-op staff, nurses and doctors were great!  I know that sounds crazy - feeling welcomed ?? in a hospital but it definitely was not the cold harsh sterile feeling you get elsewhere.   Best news is that my sister came through the surgery with flying colors.  It was one of those surgeries that you don't know til you get 'in there' what may have to be done and everything was AOK!  We hope she will be coming home on Monday or Tuesday.

Second cheer goes to Project Freedom Village.  I helped move a friend into this totally handicapped accessible two bedroom apartment yesterday.   It is so very nice for her to now be able to wheel right into the shower, to not have to struggle down narrow hallways or through narrow doorways and to be able to roll right under both the bathroom and kitchen sinks and to be able to roll right out the door to get outside and not have to rely on someone to be available to lift her.  It has to give her such a good feeling of independence.

And the third cheer - to me!  I won a one year membership to Longwood Gardens at a Red Cross fundraiser on Friday night.   Longwood is a formerl duPont estate and the gardens are world renown.   Each season brings elaborate displays, light shows and fountains.    I can see me spending a Saturday there real soon.

Hopefully this week will have calmer, quieter things in store for me and there will be some stitching accomplished.  Maybe tonight when ARMY WIVES returns!  I can't wait.   It is a favorite show of mine and I am glad it is now coming on an hour earlier.   At a minimum, this week I need to sew a new zipper into Mr. W.'s favorite hoodie at the risk of being banished if I don't!

Have a good week all and stitch away!

Friendship

What would we do without our girlfriends?  My dear dear friend Debbie arrived at my doorstep at the early hour of 7 something on a Sunday bearing gifts. Birthday gifts......I tell you this not because I am soliticing birthday wishes but to illustrate true friendshp.  My family is not one to be overly gushing and flowery for birthdays; this is a concept that others don't exactly get but it is us.   When Debbie asked what I was doing special on my birthday and I said probably laundry and cleaning I do believe I set her mind to hatching her little plan.   So we indulged in Mimosa's, an incredible edible fruit bouquet and presents.  See, my best girlfriend couldn't understand how one could not be surrounded with family on their birthday and over she pops at 7 a.m.   That, my dears, is a true friend!

A blast from the past....

Yesterday I received a call from a long time friend. There was a time when she and I were inseperable. We have been through thick and thin together with spouses, children, illness, family and pets. Our sons were joined at the hip. She'd call me...."their own their way your direction".......and I'd call back a couple of days later and tell her they were heading her way!  

Our phone call took me back to all years. My memory was flooded with all the warm feelings and memories and nostalgia for what really was a simpler time. Only we didn't know it then. As we chatted, I wiped down the kitchen, swiffered the downstairs, dusted, tidied the newspapers and pile of mail..... I remembered how as young mothers we were able to socialize over the phone while still doing dishes and housework and watching the kids. Every emergency in my life, Diane was there. She is the one that stayed with me to clean up at my mother's after the wake and then came back that night to help eat the leftovers!   She is the one I went to the morning after my daughter was put in ICU.  Diane was there when my husband was burnt and rumors flew from the factory someone has died.  (not true) 

I remember meeting Diane in 1974.  I was probably 17 and she was probably 13.  I had to pass the "twin test" for my boyfriend, (Mr. Wonderful).   He brought Diane and her identical twin to meet me at Gino's where I worked.....to get their approval that I could date him!  

Unfortunately as the children went off to college, divorces came onto the scene and working full time in different states, we grew apart. When did life get so hectic that the mid-night coffee runs stopped?   or the 'it's 5 o'clock somewhere margarita' ended?   Diane has always been good for a laugh and lights up the room with her vitality.  Sad, but true. Interests change, social circles change but memories etched on your heart don't.

  
The photo is one Diane brought to me when she came to a Christmas Open House I had.   It's our kids and a cousin and a neighbor too, in her back yard three homes ago, 25 plus years ago and a millions smiles, tears and memories ago.

Week 8 - My Small Changes

So maybe it sounds like no big deal but this week my small change will be to make sure to include labels with all my postings. Silly right? Well not when you are looking for something. I have been negligent in the past to do this and have spend the past week going back over 3 years of posts, labeling and refining existing labels.  And I am not done yet.  No bid deal, but then it wouldn't be a small change if it were.

WIPs

Well I refrained from starting a new project this week at my Secret Squirrel stitching group.   Instead I pulled out my Nan Tyson Euler "Between the Sheets" sampler from a class this past fall.  Until this week I had done no more than we did in the class.   Even though I really wanted to start something new, I am trying to stick to my resolve to shorten that WIP list.   

I love the colors and the feel of the silks.  I laid in my basting lines - which can be a godsend! and I am on my second time around with the satin stitch trianges.   Yeah, I got all the dark blue in all the way across and started filling in the lighter blue and somewhere along the way I was off a thread!  Out it all comes and not I am alternating sewing the light blue and dark  so I get the placement right.   Seems like my stitching can be all over the place within a single project as well as with many projects.