Tuesday's Truth

Why is it that too often the reward for hard work is more hard work?

Spring Cleaning

Just as I am coming to terms with this snowless winter we are having, we get a few flakes Friday night that are stubbornly refusing to melt off my deck

Go figure.

True confessions.

My sewing room is a pit.

Not just a pit, but a pit of dispair. Fabric piled all around, on the floor in multiple spots, on my sewing table, on the cutting table, on the quilt machine, under the quilt machine.

Books are likewise scattered like paper in the wind.

Trash can overflowing.

It is so much a pit, I refuse to photograph it lest the quilt police come pounding on my door with a warrent.

Until now.

I got the spring cleaning bug and went to town. Now there's not a scrap of stray fabric out of place, my books are shelved, patterns put away, and things are mostly dust free!

So you ask, where's the "after" photo?

Not on your life.

I know it won't stay this way long (keeping it real!) and I don't want any evidence to remain that could show I can keep things neat and tidy. Don't want to be forced to keep it this way all the time, because sometimes a bit of a mess is what inspires us.

So in that vein, I was inspired by my stack of batiks that had been on the floor for, well, lets just say over a year(and that is being very conservative, but so much less embarassing than the truth!). As I was cleaning and tidying and picking things up I discovered the reason why those batiks were still on the floor... I didn't have room for them in my fabric closet!

Whats a girl to do??

Make a quilt of course!

Or two. Well, actually I had to cut out three quilts to fit the fabric in the closet. And in a weeks time, between working, working, checking out my friend's new hot tub (ahhhhh!!!), and working, I managed to put together two quilt tops and am ready to piece the third.

The fun part is that all three quilts will start out with the same 3" strips (thanks Barb for the idea!)...

...and end up being three totally different quilts! Right now I have a queen size and a full size ready to go on the quilt machine and that last stack of strips are just itching to be sewn together.
I'll post pictures once they are all quilted and off to their new owners (double bonus, I'm gifting all three to people who have been waiting patiently for one of my quilts!).

Well, the sun is out, the breeze is light, and I have new Ibex hiking pants I'm dying to try out. So what if it will be 65 degrees tomorrow and only 45 today? I'm off to hit the trails! Happy sewing or spring cleaning or doing nothing to you!

Tuesday's Truth

Some things in life are worth splurging on: a pair of nice heels, really good olive oil, cookware, merino wool socks, egyptian cotton sheets, a nice cut of beef.

A return to reality

Its cold and gray and everything is coated in a slick as snot sheet of ice. Did I really see sky this blue just a week ago?



Wordless Wednesday

Art and Cacti

Spent the day walking around the Heard Native American Art Museum.

Really neat art. I would have taken photos, but I can't seem to figure out how to turn off the flash.

We left there after a great lunch in the outdoor cafe (yep, eating outside in January)

and headed to the Desert Botanical Garden.

It was a bit overcast, but still a great day to walk the gardens. Great examples of cacti from all parts of the southwest. That being said, the trail ride and hike yesterday through the Sonoran Desert was truely a highlight so far.

Now for a bit of funny stuff. As we were driving along on a four lane road, there were signs suddenly that forced us to merge into a single lane both directions.

The sign on the right said "Stay left".

The sign on the left said "Stay right".

The signs were about 10 feet down the road from each other. It was a bit disconcerting as you moved to the left and then were told to move to the right when all we needed to be told was that the lane narrowed! I guess there are some people here who just don't know how to drive through construction.





Sun, glorious Sun!!

The sun here is really bright! Reporting in from sunny Phoenix (Queens Creek to be exact), visiting an old friend I hadn't seen in at least 10 years. So here's the short version of the first two days...

Met up with my girlfriend's husband in the airport as he landed 15 minutes after I did.

I am impressed that we recognized each other as we hadn't seen each other since their wedding,

14 years ago.

We all went to this great cowboy bar for dinner, sat outside with our own personal bonfire, live music, good food, fun atmosphere.

Yesterday it was just me and my friend and we packed in a full day.

This is the view from my friend's front yard.

We went hiking and these saguaro cactus were all over. They apparently grow an inch a year. This guy was probably 15 feet tall.

These are the Superstition Mountains.

See those "little" spires of rock poking up kinda in the middle? We hiked up around those. The park was called the Lost Dutchman State Park, named after a lost gold mine. Apparently people still hike up there thinking they will find the gold mine and become rich.

We spent the day in the Sonoran Desert.

Later we went horseback riding.

That's Stewart Lake behind us. We had a couple of trail nags, but the ride was really nice.

I'll  tell you more later, we're heading out now for another full day. Checking out the Heard Museum and the Desert Botanical Gardens. Hope I don't get sunburned!

Another Adventure!

I'm off to Phoenix, Arizona tomorrow. Its so wonderful of St Louis to send me off in snow and likely welcome me back with flurries as well. Its just jealous that it will be 70 degrees in Arizona. I'm off to visit a friend of more than 25 years that I haven't seen in 10 (good thing Mother Nature likes us the way we've looked the past 20 years, I don't think we look any different!). We'll do some hiking in the desert and mountains (maybe even make a run to the Grand Canyon) and I promise to take lots of photos. I'll post if I have time, otherwise I'll give you a retrospect of the trip when I get back. I am really excited, it should be a lot of fun. Nothing like a little get away, only two weeks after winter break!

Tuesday's Truth

Bacon should be a food group.

Tuesday's Truth

Its a New Year. Promise and hope and happy surprises. Its all in how you decide to roll with it.